126 BRITISH LAND BIRDS. 



and searches for them in summer with great dili- 

 gence. Worms are wholly rejected; but flesh, 

 raw or dressed, he eats greedily, and sometimes 

 barley, with the pheasants, and other granivorous 

 birds, occasionally turned into the gardens, and 

 never refuses hemp-seed. He seldom attempts 

 to hide the remainder of a meal. With a consider- 

 able degree of attachment he is naturally pugna- 

 cious, and resents an attempt to take him up, even 

 by the hand that has just before fed and caressed 

 him. To children he has an utter aversion, and 

 will scarcely suffer them to enter the garden. 

 Even strangers, of any age, are attacked voci- 

 ferously, and he approaches all with daring impu- 

 dence." 



The JACKDAW is known to everybody. It is a 

 gregarious bird, and frequently flocks together 

 with rooks, feeding in the same way on grain 

 and insects. It frequents old towers, ruined 

 buildings, and high cliffs, where it builds, as well 

 as in holes of trees ; and it occasions great trouble 

 to housewives in the country, by building down 

 chimneys, which it frequently stops quite up, so 

 as to fill the whole house with smoke, when an 

 attempt is made to light the fire. It is active, 

 noisy, and familiar almost to impudence, and 

 lively, justifying the inquiry of some one, "Who- 

 ^ ever saw a moping jackdaw ?" 



