HABITS OF JACKDAWS.
[To THE EDITOR or THE " SSECTATOR."]
Sin,—On June 7th this year I found a half-fledged jackdaw at the foot of a tower at the castle at Ashby-de-la-Zouch. He now follows me about like a dog, indoors and in the garden, and comes to a call or a whistle. He loves to collect pins, pens, pencils, spoons, studs—brooches if he can get them— chiefly for the fun of dropping them down from a table, ohest of drawers, or window-sill. He likes tearing paper, pulling over flower-vases, upsetting cups, frightening the smaller cage- birds, or annoying the parrot. Moreover, he tortures any insect or worm unfortunate enough to come within reach, and wastes more food than he eats. Perhaps this is my fault, but I find Kindergarten methods of no avail with him so far—be does not catch the spirit, much less the letter thereof. Once he went to a garden party, but as he threw ripe raspberries into his hostess's white-winged hat the experiment has not been repeated. The porter smiles when he lifts my light basket at the station and a sound as of the church steeple of his childhood comes out of it. " Balder the Beautiful" we call him, as his pate is sparsely covered. Long may he live !—I
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