206 CORVID.E. 



ing object that he perceives;* he is besides of so bold a dis- 

 position, and so forgiving, that it is difficult so to affront him 

 as to make him keep at a more respectful distance. 



Jackdaws feed indiscriminately on insects, grain, fruits, and 

 the pods of leguminous plants, &c. Their places of nidifica- 

 tion are as diversified as their food ; but they appear chiefly to 

 prefer for the locality of their nest the tops of lofty towers, 

 churches, the academical buildings in Universities, &c. : they 

 also build among rocks, and in the hollows of decayed trees. 

 Although these birds associate so much with rooks they do 

 not build among them, but breed in distinct colonies. The 

 only instance of Jackdaws building on the branches of trees, 

 that we remember, is one related in the Zoologist by Alex- 

 ander Hepburn, Esq., who says, "On the 13th of June, 

 1841, whilst walking in Binnie wood, in company with two 

 friends, we had just emerged from a noble grove of beech 

 trees, on a glade where the woodman's axe had been busy, 

 when the lively cawing of a Jackdaw awoke the deep stillness 

 of the wood, and eager to learn what the garrulous, social 

 bird was doing in that lonely place, we walked to the foot of 

 a tall scotch fir whence the sound proceeded ; there we found 

 the dead body of a young Jackdaw, and heard the grateful 

 chatter of another : on looking upwards to the bushy, un- 

 natural growth of its branches, we perceived a bulky nest, 

 whence the old daw speedily made its escape." 



The Jackdaw's nest is remarkable for the quantity of 

 strange materials brought together. The eggs are five or six 

 in number : in the ground colour they are pale bluish white, 

 prettily marked with distinct spots of ash colour and dark 

 brown. 



The Jackdaw appears to be found throughout the length 



* We knew a Jackdaw that used to enter a bed-room window and strip a 

 pincushion of its pins, scattering them about the table ; to the no small per- 

 plexity of the owner, until the perpetrator was discovered. 



