Birds. 1775 



great profit to old Gray. Somewhat similar instances of vast piles of sticks collected 

 by jackdaws are not uncommon : they will sometimes fill almost a whole chimney with 

 sticks. At the foot of some of the trees at Bearwood I saw heaps of sticks, to the ex- 

 tent of several barrow loads, recently dropped by the jackdaws. The keeper assured 

 us several birds will lay in one nest, and we frequently saw three birds fly out of the 

 same hole, and in one case found two eggs in a nest we had robbed the day before. 

 Six was the greatest number of eggs we found in any nest, but very few had this num- 

 ber, or indeed more than one or two eggs, as it was early in the year. The jackdaws 

 generally flew out long before we got near the trees, but in one case, by creeping up 

 stealthily, I looked into a hole where a jackdaw was sitting : she did not lose her pre- 

 sence of mind, but remained perfectly quiet : I repeated the experiment several times 

 with the same result : it was in a hole within a yard of the ground. Their eggs vary 

 from one another very much less than those of most others of the tribe do. Kooks 

 vary exceedingly. — J. Wolley ; Mount Street, Grosvenor Square, May 3rd, 1847. 



Anecdote of Carrion Croivs. — The winter before last a pair of carrion crows were 

 constantly about my father's house. Three times during the winter I killed one of 

 the pair, and each time the survivor, after an absence of a few days, returned with 

 another mate : they at length built in an elm-tree near the house, and I killed the 

 hen while she was hatching her eggs. During the past winter a pair were again con- 

 stantly about the house, and this spring they repaired the last year's nest, and eggs 

 were deposited in it. I believe the fact of a carrion crow repairing his last year's nest 

 is uncommon, at least I never observed it before. — W. W. Cooper ; West Rosen, Lin- 

 colnshire, May Wth, 1847. 



Blackbirds Nest on the Ground. — Yesterday my attention was attracted by a hen- 

 blackbird rising from the ground in the middle of a large wood : on looking at the 

 place where she rose, I found a nest with five eggs in it, placed on the ground at the 

 foot of a hazel-bush. The part of the wood where the nest was, is full of hazels and 

 blackthorns, with an occasional bush of brambles and wild roses. In the material of 

 the nest was nothing extraordinary. In the same wood I have found another black- 

 bird's nest with three eggs, in a curious place. It was on the stump of a hazel, which 

 had been cut as brushwood, and from which several stems had grown. It was not 

 raised an inch from the ground, but quite surrounded by the new wood. Not far from 

 the same place I found a nest of a common song thrush on the ground, under a strong 

 plant of Heracleum Sphondylium, not less than three feet from the nearest bush. The 

 old bird was sitting on five eggs. — Id. 



The Missel Thrush, or Storm Cock. — This bird is generally considered as being of 

 a wild nature, and is but a rare visitor in some places, excepting perhaps in the winter 

 and spring, and then only are one or two pair or a few individuals to be met with. 



In some parts of England it is seldom seen at all at any period of the year, and 

 again, in other more favoured situations, this bird is a constant visitor, remaining 

 throughout the autumn, winter, and spring, and often all the year round, forming its 

 nest in the forked branch or hollow of some old tree, and bringing forth and tending 

 its young with much care, and without then showing the natural shyness it evinces at 

 most other times. Formerly it was an unusual thing in this neighbourhood to see 

 more than one or two pair of these birds during the year, but within the last eight or 

 nine years they have very much increased in this locality. It is now a common occur- 

 rence to see, either in small parties or in pairs, from twenty to thirty mistletoe thrushes 

 immediately about the house and lawn, where they remain all the year. I think it is 



