80 BIRDS AND MAN 



departing at all points. As you walk the streets 

 their metallic cUnk-clink-clink sounds from all 

 quarters — small noises which to most men are 

 lost among the louder noises of a populous town. 

 It is as if every house had a peal of minute bells 

 hidden beneath the tiles or slates of the roof, or 

 among the chimney-pots, that they were con- 

 stantly being rung, and that every bell, was 

 cracked. 



The ordinary or unobservant person sees and 

 hears far more of the jackdaw than of any other 

 bird in Bath. Daws are seen and heard all over 

 the town, but are most common about the 

 Abbey, where they soar and gambol and quarrel 

 all day long, and when they think that nobody 

 is looking, drop down to the streets to snatch 

 up and carry off any eatable-looking object that 

 catches their eye. 



It was here at this central spot, while I stood 

 one day idly watching the birds disporting 

 , themselves about the Abbey and listened to 

 their clamour, that certain words of Ruskin 

 came into my mind, and I began to think of 

 them not merely with admiration, as when I 

 first read them long ago, but critically. 



