238 
JACKDAW. 
make the mass of nests, which the accumulation 
of years collects, serve as a cover and substitute 
for the shelter of caves or ruined buildings. We 
have seen three or four nests placed underneath 
one of those large masses, which was hollowed out 
and added to beneath, so as to form a hollow 
apartment, in which the various appropriate 
linings were deposited. 
The food of the Jackdaw is similar to that of 
its congeners, only being a bird of less strength 
than many' of them ; its habits are in a manner 
modified to the power it possesses of procuring 
subsistence. Amidst cultivation it associates with 
the common rook, and feeds on grains, roots, 
insects, &c. ; or being a little more forward, 
it occasionally takes what can be procured in the 
barn and stable yards, or in the garden, while in 
the midst of cities and towns it is never at a loss, 
and will indiscriminately feed on almost any 
kind of offal. It is a bird very easily tamed, and 
with moderate attention will continue for years 
to obey the call. It will alight on the head and 
shoulder, aud take up an accustomed perch in 
the kitchen, in expectancy of its usual allow- 
ance. 
The geographical range of this species seems 
scarcely to have been so much attended to as 
some of the preceding. Over Britain and Ireland 
it is general, but is wanting in many extensive 
tracts of the outer Hebrides. In Europe it seems 
nearly equally common, but to what extent it 
ranges in Northern Asia, or of its limits, we are 
