560 BRITISH BIRDS. 



size^ shape, and markings. Some specimens are bluish green in ground- 

 colour, richly and boldly spotted and blotched with dark greenish brown, 

 chiefly at the large end of the egg, and with a few violet-grey underlying 

 spots ; others are mucli paler in ground-colour, and have the markings 

 smaller, deeper in colour, and more evenly distributed over the entire 

 surface, deep greenish brown, olive-brown, and pale grey ; whilst others are 

 the palest of blue, almost ^vhite, and quite free from markings. Jackdaw^s 

 eggs are never so thickly and beautifully marked as Crowds or Raven^'s. 

 They measure from 1'6 to 1'3 inch in length, and from !•! to '95 inch in 

 breadth. After leaving the nest the young birds are taken by their 

 parents to the pastures, and keep company with them for some time, like 

 Rooks . 



The Jackdaw does not win much favour, and its reputed ill-deeds, on a 

 much smaller scale of course than its larger congeners, are considered 

 a sufficient excuse by the ignorant gamekeeper and farmer for taking- 

 its life. It is quite as harmless a bird as the Rook, and at certain 

 seasons of the year is very useful. You have but to watch its actions 

 in the fields to be convinced of this. 



Like the Rook, the Jackdaw obtains by far the greatest portion of its 

 food on the fields and pastures, and accompanies its congeners to these 

 situations with precisely the same object in view. Its food consists 

 largely of insects, worms, grubs, and even the parasites on cattle. It is 

 to be seen on the turnip- and potatoe-fields, where the wire-worms are 

 the object of its quest; whilst in sowing-time it goes with the Rooks to 

 the newly sown land, and picks up the scattered grain that has escaped 

 being covered by the harrow. In autumn the Jackdaw will eat 

 fruit and also acorns and beech-mast ; and in winter, when food is often 

 hard to get, carrion or the refuse of slaughterhouses is eaten. On the 

 coast the Jackdaw may often be seen, side by side with the Hooded Crow 

 and the Rook, searching for shell-fish and other marine substances. 



The Jackdaw has the crown of the head rich black, glossed with 

 purple; the ear-coverts, nape, and sides of the neck are grey; the rest 

 of the upper parts are black, with violet and green reflections, especially 

 on the wings and tail; the underparts are dull black. Legs, claws, and 

 bill black ; irides greyish white. The female resembles the male in colour • 

 but the grey nape-patch is not so large and pure in colour. Young 

 birds are dull black, and the grey collar is almost absent. 



