The Jackdaw. 
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that the danger is greater when a man is armed with a 
gun, than when he has no weapon with him. In the 
spring of the year, if a person happened to walk under a 
rookery with a gun in his hand, the inhabitants of the 
trees rise on their wings, and scream to the unfledged 
young to shrink into their nests from the sight of the 
enemy. The country people observing this circumstance 
so uniformly to occur, assert that Hooks can smell gun- 
powder. 
THE JACKDAW. (Corvus monedula.) 
Tins bird is muck less than the crow. He has a large 
head and long bill, in proportion to the size of his body. 
The colour of the plumage is black, but on some parts 
inclining to a bluish hue ; the fore part of the head is of 
a deeper black. The Jackdaw feeds upon nuts, fruits, 
seeds, and insects ; and builds in ancient castles, towers, 
cliffs, and all desolate and ruinous places. The female 
lays five or six eggs, smaller, paler, and marked with 
fewer spots than those of the crow. 
Jackdaws are easily tamed, and may with little diffi- 
