Impudent Thieves 239' 



two distant from the homestead, and it is then amusing to 

 watch the impudent attempts of the jackdaws at robbery. 

 Four or five will perch on the post and rails, intent on the 

 tempting morsels : sitting with their heads a little on one 

 side and peering over. Suddenly one thinks he sees an op- 

 portunity. Down he hops, and takes a peck, but before he 

 has hardly seized it a hen darts across, running at him 

 with beak extended like lance in rest. Instantly he is up 

 on the rail again, and the impetus of the hen's charge 

 carries her right under him. 



Then, while her back is turned, down hops a second 

 and helps himself freely. Out rushes another hen, and up 

 goes the jackdaw. A pause ensues for a few minutes: 

 presently a third black rascal dashes right into the midst 

 of the fowls, picks up a morsel, and rises again before they 

 can attack him. The way in which the jackdaw dodges 

 the hens, though alighting among them, and as it were for 

 the moment surrounded, is very clever; and it is laughable 

 to see the cool impudence with which he perches again on 

 the rail, and looks down demurely, not a whit abashed, on 

 the feathered housewife he has just been doing his best 

 to rob. 



