THE PIE KIND. 183 



in trees in Ireland. The Jackdaw is black like 

 all the former, but ash-coloured on the breast 

 and belly. He is not above the size of a pigeon. 

 He is docile and loquacious ; his head being 

 large for the size of his body, which, as has been 

 remarked, argues him ingenious and crafty. It 

 builds in steeples, old castles, and high rocks, 

 laying five or six eggs in a season. The Cornish 

 Chough is like a jackdaw, but bigger, and almost 

 the size of a crow. The feet and legs are long 

 like those of a jackdaw, but of a red colour, and 

 the plumage is black all over. It frequents rocks, 

 old castles, and churches, by the sea-side, like 

 the daw, and with the same noisy assiduity. It 

 is only seen along the western coasts of Eng- 

 land. These are birds very similar in their man- 

 ners, feeding on grain and insects, living in so- 

 ciety, and often suffering general castigation 

 from the flock for the good of the community. 



The rook, as is well known, builds in woods 

 and forests in the neighbourhood of man, and 

 sometimes makes choice of groves in the very 

 midst of cities for the place of its retreat and 

 security. In these it establishes a kind of legal 

 constitution, by which all intruders are excluded 

 from coming to live among them, and none suf- 

 fered to build but acknowledged natives of the 

 place. I have often amused myself with ob- 

 serving their plan of policy from my window in 

 the Temple, that looks upon a grove where they 

 have made a colony in the midst of the city. At 

 the commencement of spring, the rookery, which 

 during the continuance of winter seemed to have 



