CHAPTER XLVIII 

 THE JACKDAW 



THE crafty " cadder," as the Broadsmen call the jackdaw, is 

 by no means common in late spring and summer, though in 

 early spring and autumn he is frequently to be seen on the 

 marshes in company with starlings and rooks, all paying 

 delicate attentions to the herds and flocks, perching on their 

 backs and picking off the lice they harbour. In this wise 

 the cadder is the farmer's friend ; but he makes the farmer 

 pay for his slender services ; for he, too, is a lover of young 

 corn, as also of worms, young birds, pieces of fresh meat, 

 and the farmer's strawberries. In winter the cadders are 

 black on the land, for many have come over the seas with 

 the rooks and starlings; but in spring few are left, and 

 these, crafty as any priest, stick to the church, building 

 their slovenly nests in the steeple, where the young blue- 

 eyed cadders are reared. 



But the cadder is fonder of the cliff-land. The fenmen 

 are too sharp for him ; he fares better in the cliff-land, 

 where the men are of his intelligence, and as fond of the 

 " silver " as he is of the strawberry patches near the^Kentish 

 chalk cliffs, where he often breeds. 



JACKDAW'S NEST (DEVONSHIRE). 

 135 



