JACKDAW. 
shooting was found impracticable; and tins plan was disapproved of by the owner. The loss of an enormous 
quantity of glass was consequently entailed every spring. In chalk-pits these birds are looked upon as an 
especial nuisance when they take up their quarters above the spot where the workmen are employed. Some 
years ago, while I was shooting a pair or two which I required as specimens, at Offham, near Lewes, I 
remarked that the men kept loudly expressing their pleasure as each poor Jack came to grief. One old fellow 
was particularly eager to render assistance by driving the birds, though his over-anxiety caused two or three 
chances to he lost. I was on the point of inquiring the cause of his animosity, when he removed his hat and 
exhibited a plate on his head. This lie stated was the result of a fractured skull, caused by the fall of a piece 
of chalk dislodged by a Jackdaw from the upper part of the pit. 
We are visited in the autumn by large numbers of these birds that cross the North Sea. I have met with 
them frequently on the passage many miles from land, and have also received a few wings from the light-ships 
on which they have fallen disabled. Several times after a gale at that period I have seen them floating either 
dead or dying on the water, not having had strength sufficient to complete their journey. I am ignorant 
whether any return in the spring to the north of Europe, as I have never observed them at that season or 
heard of their capture on the light-ships while crossing. In severe weather, when the mixed flights of small 
birds migrate along the south coast towards the west, I have occasionally noticed a few Jackdaws following the 
same course, generally in company with Looks. 
This species is easily accommodated with a nesting-place ; a hole in a tree or a cavity in cliffs (either chalk 
°r rocl 0 suits him as well as the comfortable quarters he occasionally secures in a lofty steeple or the 
battlements of some antiquated tower. In the Highlands I have frequently found large colonies breeding 
in rabbit-burrows. The holes they selected were generally in rough and broken ground on the face of some 
steep hill-side. These birds, I believe, do not commence their nesting-operations so early as Rooks. I noticed 
two or three pairs on the 28th of March, 1880, attempting to force their way into some holes near the roof 
of a large building in a town in Norfolk, where they had previously been in the habit of breeding. During 
the winter iron bars had been placed in front of the apertures ; and the noisy and fruitless efforts of the 
birds to effect an entrance were most amusing, and were continued at intervals for several days. 
On the Bass Rock Jackdaws were formerly common, breeding in holes in the turf near the summit. At 
last their depredations on the eggs of the sea-fowl induced the person who hired the rock to take steps to 
kill them down. For this purpose lie unfortunately made use of poison laid out on bread and butter, which 
certainly had the desired effect on the Jackdaws ; but it also cleared off nearly the whole of the larger Sea-Gulls 
that resorted to the rock. Whether the Daws have returned again I am unable to state. On the last occasion 
I carefully examined the various birds during the summer, L did not observe a single specimen. 
I met with a curious breeding-station of this species within a short distance of the rocks known as the 
“ Suitors,” on the coast of Cromarty, overlooking the Moray Firth. The greater number of the nests were 
placed among the stalks of the coarse ivy that climbed up the face of the cliffs, in several instances in close 
proximity and even joined to those of the Herons, who also breed in the same range of rocks. I did not 
observe that they molested their neighbours, though I should imagine an exposed egg must at times have been 
a temptation almost too strong to be resisted. 
Jackdaws arc in some districts asserted to relieve sheep of a number of the ticks with which they are 
infested. As they are, however, declared occasionally to steal a quantity of the wool, it must be doubtful 
whether their visits are conducive to the interests of the farmer, or even beneficial to the sheep themselves. 
