says the poet Warton, describing the 1st. of April; and generally by the end of May, or beginning of June, the young Rooks are fledged. The eggs from which they have emerged do not differ greatly from those of the other members of the Corvus family just described. They are usually four or five in number, of a pale greenish ground colour, blotched and spotted with light brown and yellowish green; they, however, vary greatly, some being nearly white, others grey, and others olive brown, with markings more or less deep and distinct.
JACKDAW.
DAW. KAE.
FIGURE 8.
Corvus monedula is the scientific name of this species, the latter, or specific title, being derived, as Mr. Morris supposes, from moneo, to warn; the Daw, like most of the Crow tribe, having been formerly considered a creature of evil augury.
A pert bold fellow is the Jackdaw, restless, inquisitive, and loquacious; ever poking and prying into every hole and corner, and purloining whatever he can lay his claw or his bill on. He seems to delight in mischief, and to consider that to pick and steal is the great end and object of his existence. This is a sad character to give a bird, but we must tell the truth at all hazards, and confess that, notwithstanding the respectability of his appearance, with his suit of silky black, and grey poll, like the wig of a counsellor, he is a sad scamp.
Oh, what a long catalogue of crimes and offences connected with this black-coated offender, might we present, had we space and inclination to do so; but we have not, and indeed it is not necessary, for all the world knows the character of the subject of these remarks, as well as Thomas Hood, who says—
"The Daw's not reckoned a religious bird,
Because it keeps a cawing from a steeple."
And this brings us to one of the favourite building places of Kae, as the Scotch people call it; ruined towers, and ivy-grown steeples, holes in cliffs and hollow trees, are generally chosen for the heap of sticks loosely piled together, and having a depression in the centre, where, on a layer of wool, hair, grass, or other soft substance, the eggs are deposited; in number from four to six, of a pale bluish white, spotted with greyish brown; some of the spots being large and distinct, and much deeper than the others. The young birds are generally hatched by the end of May, or early in June, by the end of the second week in which month they are usually fit to be taken from the nest; they are easily reared by hand, and become very tame, learning to talk, and play all sorts of curious tricks.
The caw of the Daw is more high and shrill than that of most Crows; it is found in nearly all parts of Great Britain, and is common in Holland, Germany, France, Italy, and most countries of Europe. One remarkable circumstance connected with its nidification is the immense quantity of material which it collects; sometimes it builds in chimneys, and completely stops them up with the huge pile of sticks, which it there deposits. It is said that the fire which, some years since partly consumed the cathedral of York, was much fed and assisted by the Jackdaws' nests on the turrets. In Cambridge, where the Daws are numerous, building in the colleges and church towers, no less than eighteen dozen of deal laths, about nine inches long and one broad, which had been purloined from the botanic gardens, where they were put into the ground as labels for the plants, were found in the shaft of one chimney in which the birds had built. Many anecdotes are related of the ingenuity they manifest on getting their building materials into the desired position; often through narrow loopholes, and up winding staircases, they manage to convey long sticks and pieces of wood in a manner truly surprising; and the way in which they pile up the light fabric upon joists and cross-beams, and window-sills, and make it all firm and stable, is no less so. Sometimes the Daws choose less lofty situations for their nests; generally, as Bishop Mant tells us, they make
"In spire or looped and windowed tower