202 VEKTEBRATA. 
times occur. It feeds on insects and worms, and is supposed to be very beneficial to the farmers 
by the immense number of noxious creatures wliich it thus destroys. It constructs its nests in 
high trees, and often hundreds, and indeed thousands, build in the same wood, constituting what 
is called a Roohery. This is usually placed near human habitations, and indeed these birds often 
breed in trees in large cities. A few years since a pair of them built between the wings of the 
dragon on Bow Church, London ; others have built in Manchester, Newcastle, &c. They are 
diffused over a great part of Europe, and are very abundant in England and Ireland ; we often 
see them referred to in English books. Their intelligence is remarkable ; when tamed they be- 
come attached to their keeper, and perform many amusing tricks. 
THE JACKDAM% 
The Jackdaw, C. monedula — the Choucas of Temrainck ; Corneille des Clochers of the French 
— is fourteen inches long; color black ; smoke-gray on the neck; eggs four to six; the nests are 
made in church-towers, belfries, steeples, and hollow trees and rabbit-burrows ; many of them 
build in the higher parts of Windsor Castle, and in the churches of large towns in England ; 
flocks are constantly seen in Paris, frequenting the trees in the garden of the Tuileries, and nest- 
ling in the churches and public buildings. They are a sociable, cheerful, and active race, flying 
about from place to place, and filling the air with their cries, which resemble the notes of young 
crows. They eat indiscriminately insects, seeds, grain, eggs, carrion, fish, shell-fish, and soft gar- 
den vegetables. They are said to pair for life. They are cunning birds, have a turn for imita- 
tion, and in confinement learn to speak some words. They are distributed throughout Europe 
and Northern Asia, and are not migratory. 
Genus FREGILTJS : Fregilus. — ^This includes the CHonaH or Eed-legged Crow, F. graculus 
of Cuvier, sixteen inches long ; color black, glossed with blue; feeds on insects, berries and grain; 
builds its nest of sticks, lined with wool, in the cavities of cliffs, old castles, and church-towers 
near the sea. It inhabits the high rocky regions of Middle Europe and Asia, frequents the cliffs 
of Great Britain along the British Channel, and being common in the mountains of Cornwall, is 
often called the Cornish Chough. It is intelligent, and when domesticated is an exceedingly 
amusing creature. 
Genus PYRRHOCORAX: Pyrrhocorax. — This includes the Alpine Chough, Chocard of 
the French, P. Alpinus, fifteen inches long ; black, with green reflections ; lives in troops in the 
mountains of Central Europe in summer, and descends to the valleys in winter ; habits like the 
preceding. 
Genus PICA: Pica. — This includes the Magpie — Gazza of the Italians, Pie of the French, 
and JSlster of the Germans — P. caudata, eighteen inches long ; the head, neck, back, and upper 
tail coverts jet black ; throat grayish-white ; scapulars pure white ; wing-coverts and tertials of a 
