90 JACKDAW. 
yet it was marvellous to see the numbers which ‘by 
hook or by crook’ they got in. The spiral nature of the 
staircase increased their difficulty, so much larger a quan- 
tity of materials being required to make a foundation. 
One instance is related by Alexander Hepburn, Esq., 
in the ‘‘Zoologist,” of the Jackdaw having built on the 
branches of trees; and Mr. George B. Clarke, of Woburn, 
Bedfordshire, tells me that “some of the Jackdaws in 
Woburn Park, instead of building their nests as they 
have hitherto done in the holes of trees, have taken to 
placing them (1850) in some of the branches of the 
Scotch firs, the foundation being composed of small 
twigs, and the remainder of coarse grass or sedge, lined 
with fine dry grass.” 
The eges, from four to six in number, are pale 
bluish white, spotted with grey and brown. 
James Dalton, Esq., of Worcester College, Oxford, 
has one of a pure white; all the others in the nest 
having been of the usual colour. 
Another variety is pale greenish blue, mottled all 
over with a few large, and many smaller, spots and 
marks of dark brown or black, light yellowish brown, 
and other colours of different intermediate shades between 
these two. 
A third is marked much in the same way, but with- 
out the largest of the markings. 
A fourth is marked similarly, with only the smallest 
of the spots and marks, and the ground colour is much 
lighter. 
A fifth is nearly white, elegantly marked with a very 
few brownish and blackish rather large irregular-shaped 
dots. 
These eggs vary also in size and shape. 
The young are hatched in the end of May. 
