CATALOGUE OF BIRDS. 95 



ground, within about a mile of the rocks where the 

 Jackdaws nested, had till now been perfectly worthless, 

 never more than a few pairs of barren birds being found 

 there. 



I have never myself detected them doing much 

 damage to game in England, though I have been 

 assured by shepherds and keepers that they occasion- 

 ally manage to search out the early Partridge nests on 

 the downs in the south. 



Numbers of these birds arrive from the north of 

 Europe in the autumn ; I have repeatedly met with 

 large flocks during the month of October, when on 

 their passage. Several times after a gale at that 

 period, I have seen these birds floating either dead or 

 dying on the water, not having had strength sufficient 

 to complete their journey. 



The specimens in the case were shot at Offham 

 Chalk Pit, near Lewes, in Sussex, in March, 1872. 



EAVEN. 



Case 97. 



The Eaven is distributed over the country from Sussex 

 to Caithness, though considerably more numerous in 

 the northern than the southern parts of the Island. 



It nests either in high trees, old buildings, cliffs or 

 precipices, accommodating itself to the neighbourhood 

 it inhabits. 



In the beginning of September, I have often seen as 

 many as fifty or sixty of these birds gathered together 

 on the moors in Perthshire ; few, if any, of these had 

 been bred in the immediate neighbourhood, having in 

 all probability crossed the hills fron the northern coun- 



