File:British birds (1921) (14752169501).jpg

Identifier: britishbirds00huds (find matches)
Title: British birds
Year: 1921 (1920s)
Authors: Hudson, W. H. (William Henry), 1841-1922 Beddard, Frank E. (Frank Evers), 1858-1925
Subjects: Birds -- Great Britain
Publisher: London, New York (etc.) Longmans, Green, and co.
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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, and crow and jayand pie are yearly diminishing in numbers, and the raven, drivenfrom its inland haunts, clings to existence in the wildest and mostinaccessible parts of the coast. The reason of this is that the jack-daw is more adaptive than the other species. He has been com-pared in this respect to the house-sparrow, for he can exist in townas well as country, and readily adapts himself to new surroundings.The variety of sites he uses for breeding purposes shows how plasticare his habits. He breeds apart from his fellows, like the carrioncrow ; or in communities, like the rook and chough. He builds inhollow trees in parks and woods, in rabbit-burrows, in ruins, church-towers, and buildings of all kinds; and in holes and crevices incliffs, whether inland or facing the sea, where he lives in companywith the rock-pigeon and the puffin. At Flamborough,* Seebohmsays, the jackdaws are very abundant. A repubUcan might callthem the aristocracy of the cliflfs. Like the modem noble, or fcha
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Rooks Jackdaws. SiARUNoa. JACKDAW 165 monks of the Middle Ages, they contrive to eat the fat of the landwithout any ostensible means of living. They apparently claim anhereditary right in the cliffs ; for they catch no fish, and do no work,but levy blackmail on the silly guillemots, stealing the fish whichthe male has brought to the ledges for the female, upsetting the eggof some unfortunate bird who has left it for a short time, anddevouring as much of its contents as they can get hold of, when theegg is broken, on some ledge of rock or in the sea. The social disposition of the jackdaw, and its friendliness towardsother species of its family, is no doubt favourable in the long run toit; for by mixing with the rooks, both when feeding and roosting,he comes in for a share of the protection extended to that bird inmost districts. There is also a sentiment favourable to the jackdawon account of its partiahty for churches and castles : the ecclesi-astical daws are safe and fearless of man

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