90 
.VATC/R E NOTES. 
JACK: A BIOGRAPHY. 
Tv'as a native of the little village of Findon in 
^1 Sussex. Nothing is known about his parentage. He 
may have been a scion of one of the numerous families 
' of ecclesiastical Daws, who have from time immemorial 
inhabited the roof of the dear little old church and its closely 
surrounding beech trees, and proved the truth of Hood’s well- 
known lines ; — 
“ The daw’s not reckoned a religious bird, 
Altho’ he keeps a-cawing from the steeple,” 
by invariably choosing the hours of DiHne Service in which to 
hold their profane parliaments. Or he may have been a member 
of the other great tribe of Daws, haunting the grey-green, orchis- 
grown slopes of Cissbury Hill. Jack’s parents may have been 
among the noisy crew that “jacked ” and “ quacked” over my 
head many a time as I sat on the soft sweet turf — looking south 
over the far-reaching, low-lying coast line to the blue sea beyond, 
dotted with white sails ; or north, over the gently swelling 
wooded weald of Sussex, to the Surrey Hills. 
But it is still more likely that Jack was not able to claim 
relationship with either of these two great aristocratic clans. 
The village was full of small colonies of jackdaws, and Jack’s 
parents probably belonged to one of these. Ever}- high tree 
with a rotten patch in its old stem big enough to be pecked into 
lodgings for two, with a liberal accompaniment of sticks as 
furniture, was pounced on at once. Farm-buildings and old 
roofs provided lodgings for others. In fact, the place was so 
popular among jackdaws, that the demand for house-room far 
exceeded the supply. IMark Twain’s famous Blue Ja}- would 
have blushed at the mildness of his own language if he could 
have heard an average newly-married Findon jackdaw, when 
looking out for a desirable mansion about nesting-time. 
I made Jack’s acquaintance first as an inmate of the 
village blacksmith’s family, a very young bird indeed, although 
past the yellow-billed age. He was in jacket and trousers, so to 
speak — with one wing clipped, otherwise free to wander at will ; 
black and sleek as to plumage, tolerated by all on account of his 
sense of humour and power of evolving fun out of scant 
materials, poor little chap, suspected to be a “ limb,” but too 
young to have taken any decided line of action 3 ’et. So he was 
not at once given the bad name, that is as good as hanging, for 
all power it leaves its unfortunate possessor of ever becoming a 
self-respecting member of society again, or of getting others to 
believe in his wish to improve ; and Jack’s owners tolerated the 
bird as I have said, suspected him, and waited — and so did Jack ! 
It was not long before stories began to circulate freely 
respecting Jack ; small thefts, and tiresome teasing ways almosf 
human in their cunning, and power to annoj' just the one against 
whom Jack had a grudge, soon wore out the patience of the 
