lift NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Description Habitations. 



THE JACKDJW. 



THIS bird is considerably smaller than the 

 took, seldom exceeding twelve or thirteen inches 

 ift kngth. The bill is black ; the eyes are white, 

 the hind part of the head and neck of a heavy 

 grey-colour, and the rest of the plumage of a 

 glossy black above, and a dusky hne beneath, 

 fn Switzerland there is a variety with a white 

 ring round the neck ; and in Norway and other 

 Cold countries they are sometimes seen perfectly 

 tvhite. They are very common in England, 

 where trtey remain during the whole year; but 

 in some parts of the continent, as in France and 

 Germany, they are migratory. 



They frequent churches, old towers and Turns 

 -in great flocks, where they build their nests ; arrd 

 they have been sometimes known to build in hol- 

 low trees, near a rookery, and to join the rooks 

 in their foraging-parties. In some parts of 

 Hampshire, from the great scarcity of towers 

 or steeples, they are obliged to form their nests 

 tinder ground, rn the rabbit holes; they also 

 fcuild in the interstices, between the upright anft 

 icross stones of Stonehenge, on Salisbury Plain, 

 far out of the reach of the shepherd boys who 

 re always idling about that place. In the Isle 

 of Ely, from the want of ruined edifices, they fre- 

 quently build their nests in chimneys. In a grate 

 below one of these nests, which had not beea 



