74 BIRDS AND MAN 



and broom and barrow to tidy up the place. 

 Before beginning his work he solemnly made the 

 following remark : "Is it not curious, sir, consider- 

 ing the distance the birds go to get their sticks, 

 and the work of carrying them, that they never, 

 by any chance, think to come down and pick up 

 what they have dropped ! " I replied that I had 

 heard the same thing said before, and that it was 

 in aU the books ; and then I told him of the 

 scene I had just witnessed. He was very much 

 surprised, and said that such a thing had never 

 been witnessed before at that place. It had a 

 disturbing effect on him, and he appeared to me 

 to resent this departure from their old ancient 

 conservative ways on the part of the cathedral 

 birds. 



For many mornings after I continued to watch 

 the daws until the nest-building was finished, 

 without witnessing any fresh outbreak of inteUi- 

 gence in the colony : they had once more shaken 

 down into the old inconvenient traditional groove, 

 to the manifest relief of the man with the broom 

 and barrow. 



