THE JACKDAW. 93 



or ploughed fields, to search, for larvse, worms, insects, and in 

 general the same sort of food as the Hooks, with which they 

 often associate on their excursions. They walk gracefully, and 

 much more smartly than the Hooks, often running under excite- 

 ment, and frequently quarrelling together, although without any 

 serious results. They do not despise carrion, and on the shore 

 will occasionally feed on shell-fish, Crustacea, and fishes, being 

 nearly as omnivorous as the Hooded Crows, although giving a 

 decided preference to larvse. They are scarcely less vigilant than 

 the Hooks, at least while in the fields, so that it is not always 

 easy to get within shot of them ; but in the breeding season one 

 may readily procure specimens by concealing himself in the midst 

 of their haunts. 



" This is one of the few birds that habitually or occasionally 

 reside in the heart of cities, where it selects a steeple, a church 

 tower, or any other high building in which it can find a sufficient 

 number of secure retreats. In Edinburgh, for example, it fre- 

 quents Heriot's and Watson's hospitals, the University, the In- 

 firmary, the chapel of Holyrood House, and the Castle, although 

 in the latter it is chiefly in the rock that it takes up its abode. 

 In the country, ruinous castles are its favourite places of resort, 

 and it is found, for example, at Dunottar, Rosslyn, and Tan- 

 tallon castles, and the buildings on the Bass. It also not unfre- 

 quently finds refuge in high rocks, as at the Cove, near Aber- 

 deen, and in other places along the coast ; and in defect of more 

 agreeable lodgings, will sometimes settle in a wood. 



" In these places also it nestles, as well as not unfrequently in 

 the interior of chimneys in which fire is not kept. The nest is 

 fixed in any convenient recess, in a cornice, or other projecting 

 part of a building, in the hole of a spout, or, in short, in any 

 place that seems suitable. It has a base-work of sticks, on whicn 

 is laid a quantity of straw, wool, feathers, and other soft mate- 

 rials. The eggs are from four to seven, generally five, of a regu- 

 lar oval form, broader in proportion to their length than those of 

 the other species, much lighter also, being of a very pale greenish 

 blue, or rather blueish white, covered, more profusely at the larger 

 end, with small, round, separated spots of dark brown and pale 

 purplish. They vary in length from an inch and four-twelfths to 

 an inch and six-twelfths in diameter, from eleven and a half- 

 twelfths to a twelfth more. The eggs are generally deposited in 

 May, and the young are abroad by the end of June. 



" Like the Wheatear, it has sometimes been found to nestle in 

 a rabbit's hole. Thus, WHITE relates that a gentleman residing 

 near Chichester informed him that ' that many Daws build every 

 year in the rabbit burrows under ground. The way he and his 

 brothers used to take their nests while they were boys, was by 



