270 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



" Hullo, my boy ! " I said. " I can see plainly 

 enough what is in your mind. You know I'm watching 

 a hole in the tree where a jackdaw has just gone in, 

 and your intention is, when no one is about, to 

 swarm up the tree and get the young birds." 



" Oh, no," he returned. " I'm not going to climb 

 the tree and don't want any young jackdaws. I 

 always come to look because the birds breed in 

 that hole, every year. Two years ago I had a bird 

 from the nest, but I don't want another." 



Then at my invitation he sat down to tell me 

 about it. One morning when he came the young 

 had just come off, and he found one squatting on 

 the ground under the trees, looking stupefied. No 

 doubt when it flew out it had struck against a trunk 

 or branch and come down bruised and stunned. 



He wrapped it up in a handkerchief and took 

 it home to Deal and put it in a box ; then mother 

 got some flannel and made a sort of bed for it, and 

 warmed some milk and they opened its beak and fed 

 it with a teaspoon. Next day it was all right and 

 opened its beak to be fed whenever they came near 

 it, and in two or three days it began flying about the 

 room and perching on their shoulders. Then he 

 brought it back to Walmer and let it go and saw it 

 fly off into the trees, but when he got home mother 

 scolded him for having let it go when its parents 

 were not about ; she said it would die of starvation. 



