kind cover their eggs, Mr. Wolley says, “ About ten days ago Henry Walter and myself amused ourselves 
by climbing up to Jackdaws’ nests placed in boles in the trees about Bearwood, on the borders of Windsor 
Forest. In the course of three days we must have examined several scores of nests. On the first day none 
of the eggs were covered ; but on the second and third days we found that several of the nests that had been 
visited before, now had their eggs either partially covered with loose pieces of wool, or the eggs in some 
cases were nearly buried in the woolly lining of the nest, and this whether the bird had just flown from the 
nest or not.” (Hewitson’s Col. 111. of Eggs of Brit. Birds, 3rd edit. vol. i. pp. 232, 233.) 
The eggs are four or five in number, of a regular oval form, and of a pale greenish blue, covered, par- 
ticularly at the larger end, with round, distinct spots of dark brown and pale purplish brown ; their length 
varies from one inch and a third to one inch and a half. They are laid in May, and the young are able to 
fly by the end of June. 
Besides his love for the society of man, the popularity of the Jackdaw is enhanced by its graceful and 
buoyant flight round and about church and other towers, its loquaeious cackling, the readiness with which 
it becomes domesticated, its powers of imitating the human voice, and its droll and comical ways ; while in 
the sheep-walk he is no less interesting for the inquisitive manner with which he probes the close-eropped 
turf before the nose of the sheep, and perches on their backs with the utmost complacency. 
There is but little differenee in the eolouring of the sexes when adult. The young have no trace of the 
hoary hind head until after the first moult ; hut as they increase in age the crown becomes of a steel-blue, the 
hinder part of the head and neck hoary; and the irides during the first autumn are generally of a dark brown, 
which ultimately gives plaee to pearly white. To deseribe the body-feathers as black wotdd be incorrect ; 
for, like those of the Rook and the Chough, they display a considerable diversity of colour as the rays of 
light impinge upon the various parts of the body. 
As a feeder, the Jackdaw may be said to be omnivorous ; for he disdains not to eat carrion, insects, grubs, 
worms, shelled mollusks, and crustaceans ; to which are added grain, seeds, and fruits, eggs, and even 
weakly birds. 
As regards distribution, if the Jackdaw of Macedonia (^Corms collaris, Drumm.) be regarded as a mere 
local variety, then the present bird ranges over central Europe (as far north as nearly to the 65th degree of 
latitude), the islands of the Mediterranean, North Africa, Cashmere, and Amoorland. 
The Co7'mis monedula and its near allies, the C. daimcus and C. iieglectus, form a small section of the 
family Cormdai, to which the generic appellations of Lycos, Monedula, and Coloem have been assigned by 
various authors, with the present bird as the type : in a general work on ornithology I should have adopted 
this view, and figured the bird Lycos monedula \ but here I have thought it advisihle to retain it under the 
old name of Corms. 
A history of the Jackdaw would be incomplete without some reference to its capability of domestication, 
and its thievish propensities ; both of which points are well illustrated in the following article from the pen of 
Mr. John Denson, senior, which appeared in the sixth Amlume of ‘ Loudon’s Magazine of Natural History.’ 
“Doubtless It is well known that the Jackdaw can be domesticated. He frequently is ; and a playful, 
merry, mischievous little fellow he becomes. One that came into my possession as soon as it was hatched, 
I kept for more than twelve months. It soon became the favourite of the family, and when able to fly, 
would follow me or any of the household into the garden or anywhere near the house. Many a time has 
he ])erched on my shoulder and amused himself by preening the side of my head, and sometimes giving 
me a nip on the ear ; and then he would call out ‘ Jack ! ’ lustily, put his powdered head knowingly on 
one side, and look in my face as if to see how I liked it. The garden was his general haunt ; there he 
Avould amuse himself for hours looking for insects. Earwigs and spiders w^ere his favourite food. I recol- 
lect his leaving my shoulder and pouncing upon a large spider and its white bag of eggs. The Jackdaws 
from the tower of the village church frequently flew round in circles, and seemed by their calls to invite 
him to join their society ; but Jack could not be persuaded to leave his abode. Still, although he made our 
house and outbuildings his home, he was not against visiting his neighbours. Many a thimble, portion of 
thread, a spoon in one or more instances, or anything that w’as portable, has he purloined from the neigh- 
bouring cottages, and concealed under the moss that grew on the thatch of the barn. Jack by this means 
got a very ill name, and if any little thing was missing he was sure to be accused. The ladder has been 
raised, his hoard searched, and the lost goods returned. Jack was a very early riser, and would imitate the 
human voice. After a while I lost sight of him, and heard some years afterwards that his thievish and 
mischievous propensities had brought him to an untimely end.” 
The figures in the accompanying Plate represent the two sexes of the natural size. The plant is the 
common Ivy, Hedera Helix, Linn. 
