SOCIAL HABITS OF THE JACKDAW. 
THE JACKDAW. 
sinister disposition ; if lie is not so sprightly as his pie-bald cousin 
the magpie, he certainly bears a much better character. He 
is a sociable bird. Even in a wild state, should he find the 
company of his own species not sufficiently enlivening, he will 
spend a day or two with the rooks and crows ; nay, he has been 
known to take his wife 
with him and to spend 
the entire winter at rook- 
dom. When domesticat- 
ed, he becomes as well- 
behaved an inhabitant 
of the poultry-yard, as 
the tamest duck or 
chicken ; he generally 
attaches himself to one 
individual upon the pre- 
mises, and to that one 
he devotes the whole 
of his affection. 
I am not libelling the jackdaw when I say that this person 
is the cook. Perched on the kitchen table, he takes a breath- 
less interest in the preparation of a joint for the spit ; especially 
if it be a joint that requires trimming. When the meat is hung 
to the fire, he watches it with as much concern as though he 
was the party responsible for its well-doing. Ho matter what 
maybe going on — apple-peeling, poultry -trussing, game-drawing, 
or suet-chopping, — jack is sure to be in attendance with an in- 
satiable appetite for rejected morsels. 
That he is more honest than the magpie is true enough, but 
that he is perfectly honest, is refuted by many printed and 
published stories, among others, that of the pickled cockles. 
A certain jackdaw was possessed by a gentleman who was 
particularly fond of the tiny shell-fish pickled; and, after 
considerable difficulty, procured a cook who could dress them 
to perfection. Having pickled a quantity of cockles and put them 
in a jar, the cook was much surprised to discover next morning 
that the parchment cover had been partly ripped off the jar, 
and a quantity of the cockles abstracted. Without mentioning 
the matter, she tied down the jar again, and went about her 
work. In the middle of the day, while she was roasting a joint, 
she heard a rending of parchment, and there was the jackdaw 
with his head hidden in the jar, and nothing but his tail and 
hind-quarters visible, feasting gloriously. Unfortunately for 
