really is some inherent mastership in him by which he contrives, 

 under certain circumstances, to rule over them. In proof of 

 this, I will tell you what the Rev. J. G. Wood relates from the 

 experience of a lady, a friend of his. One severe winter, when 

 she had housed and fed a number of birds, amongst which were 

 a jackdaw, a magpie, two skylarks, a goldfinch, and a robin, in 

 a warm aviary, feeding them regularly and abundantly, other 

 birds came, of course^ to partake of the plentiful feast, and 

 amonsfst them two o-olden-crested wrens. These little thinars 

 made themselves not only quite at home, but lorded it over the 

 other birds in the most extraordinary way possible. For in- 

 stance, if the jackdaw had possessed himself of a nice morsel 

 which he was holding down with his foot to eat comfortably, 

 and the golden-crested wren had also set his mind on it, he 

 hopped on the jackdaw's head and pecked in his eye, on the 

 side where his foot held the delicacy. On this the poor jackda.v 

 instantly lifted his foot Lo his head where he thought something 

 was amiss, and the mischievous little fellow snatched up the 

 treasure and was off. At first the jackdaw would pursue him 

 in great wrath, but he soon learned that it was no use, for the 

 creature would only jump upon his back where he could not 

 reach him, and so was safe from punishment. " Before the 

 winter was over," continues the lady, "the little gold-crests 

 were masters of all the birds, and even roosted at night on their 

 backs ; finding, no doubt, that in this way they could keep their 

 little feet much warmer than on a perch." 



Conceited and dominant, however, as these little birds may 

 be, they are yet either extremely timid, or their nervous system 

 is so delicately constituted, that a sudden fright kills them. 



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