The Jackdcm. 81 



part of a church tower, and in order to reach it, one of them 

 had to -walk on a plank thrust out of the window, and sup- 

 ported by his companion inside. 



The nest was reached, and the young birds, five in number, 

 were placed in the breast of the youthful adventurer, who 

 was about to return, when the other boy said that he must 

 have three of them. "'No," replied he on the plank; "I'll 

 give you two." "If you don't give me three, I'll drop you." 

 "I shan't." "Whereupon the young rascal actually let go the 

 plank, and the boy with the birds fell to the ground, a distance 

 of some sixty feet, unhurt, and on reslohing terra flrma, ran 

 away shouting: "ITow I shall keep them all!" 



He wore a stout smock frock, and the wind getting under 

 it, converted it into a parachute, and so saved his life. 



Corvus monedula, the latter term supposed to be from monere, 

 to advise, in consequence of these birds being looked upon 

 as of bad omen in the science of augury, the Jackdaw, le 

 Chocas of Buffon, die Dohie of Bechstein, has been celebrated 

 by many poets, among others Cowper, Thomas Ingoldsby, and 

 Thomas Hood, whose well-known lines I refrain from quoting 

 here. He is a stoutly built bird, some thirteen or fourteen 

 inches in length, with a light grey head that imparts to him 

 a venerable appearance, which his well-known character but 

 too certainly belies. 



He builds a nest of sticks in old buildings, the steeples 

 of country churches, and even in chimneys in the midst of 

 towns, where he shares with the semi-domesticated Pigeons 

 such coigns of vantage as the basso-relievos on the facades 

 of public buildings, not scrupling, when opportunity offers, 

 to make a meal off the young ones or eggs of his companions. 

 His own eggs, or I should say those of his wife, are of a 

 greenish blue colour, spotted with greyish brown, some speci- 

 mens being more thickly covered than others. 



This bird often flies in company with the Books, whose 

 deserted nests it not unfrequently appropriates to its own use. 



a 



