BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



we have to call in a man with a pole to clear the 

 flues out/' He told me that a few years ago, one cold 

 June day, a fire was lighted in the drawing-room, 

 and as the smoke all poured out into the room a man 

 was sent up to the roof with a pole to clear the 

 obstruction out. Presently a mess of sticks came down 

 and with them two fully-fledged young jackdaws, 

 one dead, killed with the pole, the other sound and 

 lively* This one they kept and it soon became quite 

 tame ; when able to fly it would go off and associate 

 with the wild birds, but refused to leave the house 

 until the following summer, when it found a mate 

 and went away* 



The head keeper at Trevelloe, a remarkably 

 vigorous and intelligent octogenarian who has been 

 in his place over half a century, gave me some 

 interesting information about the daws. He says 

 they have greatly increased in recent years in this 

 part of Cornwall because they are no longer molested ; 

 no person, he says, not even a game-keeper anxious 

 about his pheasants, would think of shooting a 

 jackdaw* But this is not because the bird has changed 

 its habits, he is as great a pest as ever he was, and as 

 an example of how bad jackdaws can be he related 

 the following incident told him by a friend of his, a 

 head keeper on an estate adjoining a shooting his 

 master took one year on the north-west coast of 

 England* It happened that a big colony of daws 



