THE JACKDAW. 
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ordinary fowl and birds, as bernacles, wild geese, swans, 
cocks-of-the-wood, woodcocks, choughs , rooks, Cornish 
choughs , with red legs and bills C &c. Here the first-men¬ 
tioned choughs were in all probability jackdaws. 
Shakespeare alludes to— 
“ Russet-pated choughs, many in sort, 
Rising and cawing at the gun’s report.” 
Midsummer Night's Dream , Act iii. Sc. 2. 
Now the jackdaw, though having a grey head, would 
more appropriately bear the designation of “ russet-pated ” 
than any of his congeners. We may presume, therefore, 
that this is the species to which Shakespeare intended 
to refer. The head of the chough, like the rest of its 
body, is perfectly black. 
The Jackdaw ( Corvus moneduld) has not been so fre¬ 
quently noticed by Shakespeare as many other birds, and 
in the half-dozen instances in which it is mentioned, we 
find it referred to as the “ daw.” The word occurs in 
Coriolanus , Act iv. Sc. 5 ; Troilus and Cressida , Act i. 
Sc. 2 ; Much Ado about Nothing , Act ii. Sc. 3 ; Twelfth 
Night , Act iii. Sc. 4; and in a song in Loves Labour's 
Lost. Warwick, expressing his ignorance of legal matters, 
says :— 
“ But in these nice sharp quillets of the law, 
Good faith, I am no wiser than a daw.” 
Henry VI. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4. 
