JACKDAW 



Corvus iiionedula 



HE Jackdaw is a very common resident, and widely dis- 

 tributed throughout Great Britain and Ireland ; it breeds 

 in most districts, on the coasts as well as inland, and is 

 quite as much at home in the busy towns as it is in the 

 ruined castles or rocky heights in the wild glens of the 

 Highlands. 



The Jackdaw makes itself at home among very varied 



surroundings, nesting in the chimneys of our smokiest, busiest towns, 

 among the beams in the spires of cathedrals and churches, in ruined castles 

 and buildings of all sorts, among ivy-covered rocks in glens, or in rabbit- 

 holes on the hill-sides. On the sea-coast it is common wherever there are 

 rocks, even nesting in such isolated situations as the Bass Rock among the 

 Solan Geese and Kittiwakes, where they steal the fish, and even the eggs, 

 of their neighbours the Gulls. They are strictly gregarious birds and live 

 in colonies all the year round, flying to their feeding-grounds in the morning 

 and returning to roost as the shades of evening descend. Their movements 

 are very regular, and they return to roost every evening at the same state 

 of the sun, going through their usual performances in the air every evening 

 before retiring for the night. Every now and then the birds all take 

 wing, wheeling and circling in the air, sometimes chasing each other, and 

 keeping up a chorus of cries as they fight for perches on the trees or rocks, 

 every now and then raising quite an uproar like a lot of people all talking 

 at once, and each one trying to drown his neighbour with his ' keeacko- 

 keack-keack-keeacko-keeacko? Occasional bursts of cries startle the echoes 

 long after darkness has set in. The Jackdaw pairs for life, and the two may 

 be seen sitting together at their roosting-places preening each other's feathers, 

 and playfully pecking at each other. 



'55 



