JACKDAW. Corvus montdula. 



each other, and that on the return, the time of which was no bad augury of the weather of 

 the succeeding day, the Daws accompanied the rooks a little past the ravine ; then both 

 cawed their farewell and departed. 



What is more singular, I have seen, too frequently for its being merely accidental, a 

 Daw return for a short time to the rooks, a rook to the Daws, or one from each race meet 

 between and be noisy together for a space after the bands had separated. With the 

 reason I do not interfere, not being in the secrets of either party, but the fact is as certain 

 as it is curious." 



In captivity, to which it accommodates itself with most philosophical composure, the 

 Jackdaw is a very amusing bird, and soon learns many curious tricks. I have already 

 recorded many anecdotes of some tame Jackdaws in " My Feathered Friends," published 

 by Messrs. Eoutledge, to which the reader is referred, as well as for a more detailed 

 history of the rook, magpie, and many others of the same tribe. I will therefore refrain 

 from repeating them, and only give one or two anecdotes of a Jackdaw that belonged to 

 one of my friends, and which was to the full as remarkable a bird as any that I have 

 met with. 



He was imitative in the extreme, and more than once had put the house in danger by 

 his passion for lighting lucifer matches, of which amusement he was as fond as any child. 

 On one occasion he lighted the kitchen fire in the course of the night. The cook had laid 

 the fire over-night, intending to apply the match early in the morning. The Jackdaw 

 contrived to get hold of the lucifer box, and had evidently rubbed the match upon the 

 bars and so set fire to the combustibles, as the cook found the fire nearly burnt out, the 

 Jackdaw in the kitchen, and some eighteen or nineteen exploded matches lying in the 

 fender. 



The first time that this Jackdaw lighted a match he was so frightened at the sharp 

 crackling report that he ran away as fast as he could go, coughing and sneezing after his 

 fashion from the fumes of the sulphur, he having held the match close to the phosphoric 

 end. He never seemed to distinguish the ignitible end of the match, and would rub away 

 with great perseverance on the blank end, without discovering the cause of his failure. By 



