104 
ESTHETICS AT THE ZOO 
From the Jackdaw of Rheims to the old raven at the 
Tower of London, who amassed a unique and valuable 
collection at the bottom of one of the venerable 
cannon inside the Barbican, there can hardly have 
existed a tame member of the tribe which has not at 
times asserted its own right to a share in the enjoy- 
ment of what we remember to have seen described in 
the pompous advertisement of a modern art furnisher, 
as “ those products of the minor arts which contribute 
to the dignity and refinement of domestic life.” They 
have a wide and catholic sense of feeling for what may 
contribute to their happiness in this way, and do not 
always distinguish between what is beautiful and what 
is merely curious. At the same time, they do often 
distinguish and keep apart what they collect or steal 
for food, and their art collections, which are hidden 
separately, and far more carefully concealed. The 
writer has seen this in the case of tame jays and 
jackdaws, and has known it practised by a raven and 
a magpie. The latter always hid the crusts, and 
especially the small squares of toast made ready for 
soup, which he stole or had given him in the kitchen, 
between the layers of household linen in the drying- 
room of a large house in Northumberland. But his 
“ collections ” were buried in the straw in a disused 
outhouse. The loss of several small cups and saucers 
out of a bright-coloured set belonging to the children 
led to the discovery of this hoard, as the bird was 
seen to enter the shed, and was there found pulling 
away the straw which covered the china. 
