CHAPTER XV 
JACKDAWS 
It is helic'ved shat the jackdaw is the bird referred to by Shakespeare as the Russet-pated Chough (Midsummer-Night’s Dream, Hi. 2) 
here. Suffice it to say that, on account of these characters, the group is further divided into 
two sections, and each section again divided into two. 
The Crows, Orioles, Finches, and their Allies 
At the head of the tribe stands, by general though by no means universal consent, the 
Crow Family, of which the recognised chief is the Raven, a bird which has for thousands of 
ye'ars commanded a more than passing interest amongst mankind. Renowned as the truant 
from the Ark, or as the wonderful minister of the prophet Elijah, there are few even of the 
youngest amongst us who do not know of its striking personality. The poet and the dramatist 
have both made use of the raven, and it would seem that it has even found a place in the 
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THE PERCHING-BIRDS 
S UCH an enormous host are included under this head — nearly 6,000 out of the total of 
13,000 known birds — and so great are the difficulties connected with their systematic 
arrangement, that it has been considered best to begin the present chapter with the 
highest instead of the lowest types of the group. 
The extensive group of Perching-birds is defined mainly from the characters afforded by 
the structure of the voice-organ, and these are of much too technical a nature to be discussed 
