THE JACKDAW. 1 19 



ordinary fowl and birds, as bernacles, wild geese, swans, 

 cocks -of- the -wood, woodcocks, choughs, rooks, Cornish 

 choughs, with red legs and bills," &c. Here the first-men- 

 tioned choughs were in all probability jackdaws. 



Shakespeare alludes to — 



" Russet-pated choughs, many in sort, 

 Rising and cawing at the gun's report." 



Midsummer Night's Dream, Act iii. Sc. 2. 



Now the jackdaw, though having a grey head, would 

 more appropriately bear the designation of " russet-pated " 

 than any of his congeners. We may presume, therefore, 

 that this is the species to which Shakespeare intended 

 to refer. The head of the chough, like the rest of its 

 body, is perfectly black. 



The Jackdaw (Corvus monedidd) has not been so fre- 

 quently noticed by Shakespeare as many other birds, and 

 in the half-dozen instances in which it is mentioned, we 

 find it referred to as the " daw.'' The word occurs in 

 Coriolanus, Act iv. Sc. 5 ; Troilus and Cressida, Act i. 

 Sc. 2 ; Much Ado about Nothing, Act ii. Sc. 3 ; Twelfth 

 Night, Act iii. Sc. 4 ; and in a song in Love's Labour's 

 Lost. Warwick, expressing his ignorance of legal matters, 

 says : — 



" But in these nice sharp quillets of the law, 

 Good faith, I am no wiser than a daw." 



Henry VI. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4. 



