158 
NATURE NOTES. 
our garden, sometimes building their nests, to our inconvenience, in spouts or 
chimneys. One summer day we observed a solitary jackdaw sitting on the 
spouting at the edge of the roof, and uttering every minute or two a loud and 
dismal croak. We watched him for some time and tried to frighten him away, 
but in vain ; there he stayed persistently the whole day. We joked a good deal 
about it, calling him the “cracked jackdaw,” but we were very much surprised 
to find him still there ne.\t day and still constantly uttering his dreary and dis- 
cordant note. This went on for several days, and my father was talking of 
shooting the bird, when another curious circumstance occurred. The stairs and 
landings at the top of our house are lighted by sky-lights of semi-opaque glass in 
the ceiling, with others in the roof above. One of us, passing under a sky-light, 
noticed something fluttering about over it, and thought it must be a bird. One 
of my brothers accordingly went up through the trap-door into the space under 
the roof, and there he found a jackdaw which must have got into the roof through 
the opening of a spout and been unable to find its way out again. He caught it, 
brought it down, and let it out through a window, when it was instantly joined 
by the solitary bird, and away they flew together ! We saw and heard no more 
of the “ cracked jackdaw.” We have always thought the incident a very touch- 
ing instance of a bird’s devotion and constancy. Another pair of jackdaws took 
a particular fancy apparently to the chimney of an upstairs room which had the 
fire-place boarded up, and being determined to have their nest in it, they com- 
pletely filled it with sticks from bottom to top and then laid their eggs. They 
roust have spent a great amount of time and labour in doing it, showing perse- 
verance worthy, we considered, of a better cause. 
M. A. B. 
A Friendly Cat. — The following curious instance of feline benevolence has 
recently come under my notice. An old tabby cat, aged about 14 years, has for 
the last five years taken the chickens of an old Bramah hen at her owner’s cottage 
under her especial protection. As soon as the chickens are out of the egg she 
licks them carefully over, and she spends the whole day watching them and 
following them about. No other cat or dog dare approach. This year the 
Bramah was replaced 'oy a younger hen who did not appreciate the cat’s attentions, 
and would not allow her to come near. The cat, however, still comes as near as 
she can, and follows the chickens about everyw’here until they are old enough to 
leave the hen. 
Lensden Jlcarage. Gilbert White. 
Bees’ Nests. — The enclosed were dug out of a vase of earth in the garden 
yesterday by the gardener, w'ho imagines them to be the work of bumble bees, 
and states that he has seen these and other bees at work cutting the lids of the 
boxes out of rose leaves. We have never seen anything of the kind before, and 
think therefore they may be interesting to you. The gardener found them in 
perfectly dry earth, about three inches below the surface, in a compact mass 
(about tw'enty), and in, he thinks, a vertical position and perfectly fresh and green. 
He tells me he has been struck in watching the bees at work, not only with the 
rapidity with which the lids were cut, but also with the marvellous accuracy of 
their hexagonal shape. The vase is not close to any rose tree. 
St. Lawraice, hie of Wight. C. S. B. 
[Mr. W. F. Kirby says : — “Humble-bees form their nest in burrows in the 
ground, but many other bees do the same, and the nests sent herewith are pro- 
bably those of the leaf-cutter bee, Megachile centuncularis." — Ed. N. N.~\ 
Cat Worsted by Jackdaws. — In the early morning of May 29th an exciting 
conflict was witnessed in our garden — one of the few haunts of birds still left in this 
part of Hampstead. A young jackdaw had fallen from its nest, and had attracted 
the attention of a marauding cat. The parents and neighbours of the young bird 
were, however, speedily alive to its danger. About a dozen had collected, and 
while one stood proteclingly over it, the rest from their vantage ground on a 
neighbouring railing made such fierce and repeated sallies upon the enemy 
that there is little doubt which way the battle would have ended had not human 
