240 JACKDAW. 
France, Spain, Italy, Greece, and some other portions of the 
Mediterranean basin, including Morocco and Algeria, it is extremely 
local. After heavy gales from the south-east it has been found in 
the Canaries. The examples obtained in Eastern Europe, Turkestan, 
Kashmir, and the valley of the Yenesei in Siberia, have remarkably 
white and well-defined collars; but from the Altai Mountains to 
Eastern Siberia and China, the representative species is C. dauricus, 
which has the nape, sides of the neck, lower breast and belly ashy- 
white. 
For its breeding-place the Jackdaw chooses holes and cavities in 
rocks, churches and castles—-ruined or not, the chimneys of in- 
habited houses, rabbit-burrows and hollow trees; while sometimes 
the nest is among stalks of coarse ivy on cliffs, or in spruce firs, 
open to the sky. It is usually a substantial, and sometimes a 
monstrous, pile of sticks, warmly lined with wool, rabbit’s-fur and 
other soft materials. The 4-6 eggs, laid towards the end of April, 
are of a pale bluish-green, boldly spotted and blotched with black, 
olive-brown and violet-grey ; sometimes the ground-colour is greyish- 
white and the markings are very scanty : measurements 1°4 by 1 in. 
The warm lining is often pulled over the eggs, so as to conceal 
them ; and the late Mr. C. B. Wharton found a clutch smeared and 
apparently disguised with a coating of clay, taken from a lump 
which was in the nest. At Cambridge great inconvenience was 
formerly caused by the appropriation of the labels from the old 
Botanic Gardens by the Jackdaws ; no fewer than eighteen dozen 
being discovered in one chimney. The food consists largely of 
insects and their larvee, worms, and the parasites found on sheep, 
upon the backs of which the bird may often be seen perched; but 
the Jackdaw is also a terrible egg-stealer. The flight is rapid but 
wavering, numerous evolutions being performed in the air to the 
accompaniment of a short clear note, sounding like cae. Although 
it generally flies in pairs the Jackdaw is at all times more or less 
gregarious, and especially so in winter. 
The adult male has the Jores and crown of the head glossy 
purplish-black ; ear-coverts, nape and sides of the neck grey, in- 
clining to white, and producing the effect of a collar; rest of the 
upper parts glossy black ; under parts dusky-black ; bill, legs and 
feet black. Length about 14 in.; wing 9:3 in. The female is 
somewhat smaller and the grey collar is less defined. The young 
are dull black, with very little grey on the head and nape. The iris 
is white at all ages. 
