THE FACKDAW. 331 
placing themselves under the protection of its owner ; and yet, if they see a 
™man with a gun, or even with a suspicious-looking stick, they fly off their 
nests with astounding clamour, and will not return until the cause of their 
alarm is dissipated. During the “rook-shooting” time, all the strong-winged 
birds leave their nests at the first report of the gun, and, rising to an 
enormous elevation, sail about like so many black midges over their deserted 
homes, and pour out their complaints in loud and doleful cries, which are 
plainly audible even from the great height at which they are soaring. 
The nest of the Rook is large, and rather clumsily built ; consisting chiefly 
of sticks, upon which are laid sundry softer materials as a resting-place for the 
eggs. The Rook is a very gregarious bird, building in numbers on the boughs 
of contiguous trees, and having a kind of social compact that often rises into 
the dignity of law. For example, the elder Rooks will not permit the younger 
members of the community to build their nests upon an isolated tree at a 
distance from the general assemblage ; and, if they attempt to iniringe this 
regulation, always attack the offending nest in a body, and tear it to pieces. 
The number of birds which are’ to be found in such rookeries is 
enormously great, several thousands having been counted in a single 
assemblage. In such cases they do great damage to the upper branches of 
the trees, and in some in- 
stances have been known to 
kill the tree, by the con- 
tinual destruction of the 
growing boughs, 
- The colour of the Rook is 
a glossy deep blue-black, the 
blue being more conspicious 
on the wing-coverts and the 
sides of the head and neck. 
The length of an adult Rook 
is about eighteen or nineteen 
inches. 
THE smallest of the British 
Corvidee is the well-known 
JACKDAW, a bird of infinite 
wit and humour, and one 
that has an extraordinary 
attachment for man and his 
habitations. 
The Jackdaw may easily be 
distinguished from either the rook or the crow by the grey patch upon the 
crown of the head and back of the neck, which is very conspicuous, and can 
be seen at a considerable distance. The voice, too, is entirely different from 
the caw of the rook or the hoarse cry of the crow ; and as the bird is very 
loquacious, it soon announces itself by the tone of its voice. It generally 
takes up its home near houses, and is fond of nesting in old buildings, espe- 
cially preferring the steeples and towers of churches and similar edifices, 
where its nest and young are safe from the depredations of stoats, weasels, 
and other destroyers. 
The grey patch on the head and neck is not seen until the bird attains 
maturity, the feathers being of the same black hue as on the remainder of 
the body until the first moult, when the juvenile plumage is shed and the 
adult garments assumed. 
The nest of the Jackdaw is a very rude structure of sticks, lined, or 
rather covered with hay, wool, feathers, and all kinds of miscellaneous sub- 
JACKDAW.—(Corvus monedula.) 
