On Crag and Sea-cliff. 237 



much beautiful scenery still remains, surrounded as 

 it is by some of the blackest towns and grimiest 

 centres of manufacturing industry in the British 

 Islands. 



One of the commonest birds throughout this dis- 

 trict of crags is the Jackdaw. In the south of Eng- 

 land this birds perhaps shows more partiality for 

 marine cliffs; inland, as in Yorkshire, it frequents 

 churches and other buildings. Perhaps this is be- 

 cause such inland cliffs are not so common in the 

 south. There is scarcely a rocky glen in the Peak 

 that does not echo the Jackdaw's cackling cry. 

 At Castleton there is an exceptionally fine colony 

 established in the lofty cliffs at Devil's Hole, and 

 which are crowned with the crumbling ruins of the 

 keep of once-famous Peveril Castle. Here many 

 times we used to stand at the mouth of the vast 

 yawning cavern, in which the rope-makers are estab- 

 lished, as the dusk gathered, and watch the noisy 

 Daws come home to roost. Usually in one compact 

 flock they came, sometimes in several detached 

 parties, and after wheeling and fluttering they finally 

 settled upon the scraggy trees growing out of the 

 rock face. Their cackling cries made the grand old 

 gorge echo again a chorus that was kept up till 

 their sable forms could not be distinguished in the 

 evening gloom. They make their nests here in the 

 holes and crevices of the mighty cliffs. Another 



