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altogether in company with Rooks. Although pert and familiar, the Jackdaw is wary, and 

 knows well when danger threatens, permitting an unarmed man to approach quite close, but 

 keeping well away from any one carrying a gun. I have often observed how very tame they are 

 in the large towns of Russia, where they frequent the courtyards, and will stalk about within a 

 few paces of the servants ; on the other hand, outside the town the same birds are as wary 

 and cautious as an old Raven. I used frequently to put food outside my window on the broad 

 sill, and have sat at the window when a dozen Jackdaws were seated outside within a foot or so 

 of me; but they always waited until I had closed the window, when they did not seem to object 

 to being watched through the glass. Wherever there are old ruins, there the Jackdaw appears 

 to be most at home ; but it is almost as fond of an old steeple or church-tower, or any large 

 building where it can find crannies and suitable places for nidification. 



It walks with ease and much more grace than any other of the Crows, and searches much 

 on the ground after food. It frequents pastures and ploughed fields in search of larvae and 

 insects of various kinds, and in the towns will wait about in the yards to pick up any refuse that 

 may be thrown out. It will feed also on shell-fish, crustaceans, and even carrion, being as 

 omnivorous as others of the Crows, but appears to prefer insects when they are to be had. 



Its flight is rapid and extremely wavering ; and one seldom sees it flying soberly in a direct 

 line like a Crow : it performs evolutions in the air, uttering its clear short caw, which when 

 tittered by a large flock becomes modulated and is not disagreeable. 



It breeds in May, selecting for the purpose of nidification ruined towers or large buildings, 

 church-steeples or towers, hollow trees, clefts and crannies in the cliffs, or even in some instances 

 rabbit-burrows. Its nest is a bulky and careless structure, consisting of a groundwork of sticks, 

 on which are heaped straw, feathers, wool, and any soft material, upon which the eggs, from four 

 to seven in number, are placed. These latter are subject to considerable variation : in ground- 

 colour they vary from pale sea-green, almost white, to rich though pale bluish green, and are 

 more or less spotted and marked with dots and small blotches of dark umber-brown on the 

 surface, the shell-markings, which are small, being pale dull purplish or light purplish brown. 

 Some eggs in my collection are tolerably closely spotted all over the surface, whereas others only 

 have a few scattered spots. One egg is marked with liver-brown spots or dots, and much 

 resembles some eggs of the Nutcracker. In size they vary from 1-j-g- by f§ to l^ by l^g- inch. 



Mr. C. Bygrave Wharton has called my attention to a curious instance of the Jackdaw 

 daubing its eggs over with a thick coating of clay. This gentleman writes to me as follows : — 

 " On the 30th April, 1872, 1 took from a hole in an old elm tree in Cassiobury Park, Herts, four 

 eggs of this bird which were so evenly daubed all over with clay that the shell was almost com- 

 pletely invisible, and the shape and weight alone told them to be eggs. The one I washed 

 turned out to be rather a highly coloured egg, but of the ordinary type. I may mention that 

 in the nest I also found a piece of hard clay (about the size of the smallest of the four eggs) 

 with distinct marks of a bird's beak upon it. The only reason I can think of to account for this 

 strange conduct on the part of the Jackdaw is that it may have been done to make the eggs less 

 conspicuous to any wandering Jay, the nest being placed not far from the mouth of the hole, 

 and the eggs consequently more or less in sight of a passing bird. I showed the eggs and clay 

 to Professor Newton and others after one of the ' Zoo.' meetings ; and if I remember rightly, you 



