308 CORVIDvE. 



ful. Sir C. Anderson informed the Author of a nest in a 

 spiral staircase at Saundby Church in Nottinghamshire, 

 which was composed of sticks piled up to the height of five 

 or six of the narrow steps so as to reach a landing-place. 

 Jesse has described and figured (Scenes and Tales of Country 

 Life, p. 57 and frontispiece) a similar but larger nest, built, 

 in seventeen days, in the bell-tower of Eton College Chapel, 

 and forming a solid pillar ten feet in height.* Mr. Gunn 

 recorded (Zool. s.s. p. 1847) another nest of this kind in 

 Hillington Church in Norfolk, completely blocking up the 

 tower- stairs by a substantial mass, some twelve feet in height 

 and a cartload in bulk, which had been completed in about 

 three weeks. Lord Clermont has kindly communicated to 

 the Editor an account of a structure as wonderful, built 

 between the 5th and 10th of April, 1868, in the church at 

 Tonesborough in the county Armagh, the arch in which 

 the bell hung being filled to half its height with the sticks 

 of a nest which surrounded the bell so that it could not be 

 rung until the curious obstruction was removed. In almost 

 every case the nest is lined with wool, straw or other soft ma- 

 terials, among which shavings and horsedung must be par- 



* Jesse cites this structure as a proof of the bird's reasoning powers, a view 

 which seems to be mistaken. He says that : " As the staircase was a spiral 

 one, the birds began to make a pillar of sticks on that identical step, which 

 alone would give them the best foundation for their intended work. Had they 

 gone to the one above, or to the one below that which they had so sagaciously 

 fixed upon, it was very evident that they would not have acquired that precise 

 slope or angle for their pillai*, which was necessary for the effectual support of 

 the nest." Now it would appear far more likely, from what we otherwise know 

 of the Daw's habits, that the sticks were dropped one by one inside the window- 

 sill without any such sagacious intent, and that the slope of the pillar, on which 

 he so much relies, was determined by the sticks first dropped not finally resting 

 where they fell, but slipping down to the next step as others lodged upon 

 them, and so on until a firm base was established. Directly the mass accumu- 

 lated so as to be clear of the step, the stack would naturally rise (as it seems 

 from the figure to have done) perpendicularly to the window-sill. Jesse also 

 remarks, in further support of his estimate of the bird's reasoning faculty, that 

 "each of the sticks had been broken, or rather cracked exactly in the centre, so 

 that they could be doubled up." That only cracked sticks should be found is 

 not surprising, because no others could pass in the ordinary way, as already 

 described, through the narrow window, but that they were intentionally cracked 

 by the birds there is no proof whatever. 



