Later in spring I was much interested in a pair of jackdaws, who are busily employed in building a huge nest composed of live ash-twigs and sheep's wool, just within the ventilator of my bedroom chimney, in a solidly built house of grey stone, near the great Pendle Hill in North Lancashire. The openings in the church spire had all been closed against them, because the birds invaded it in such numbers that, apart from the disturbing noise and the dirt, they were injuring the woodwork so much that the vestry was becoming uninhabitable on account of the rain that poured in. So the chimneys of the neighbourhood were greatly in requisition. The housemaid routed out a bushel or more of building materials every day, and she tells me that a busy pair of jackdaws have just tumbled down into the "slop-kitchen." All I tell her about the services of this lively, and to me pleasant, bird in freeing sheep of their torturing insects, and other matters which ought to make us charitable towards "Jack-up," has no weight with this busy Martha, whose sense of the fitness of things is offended by ashtwigs and dried refuse projecting into the clean rooms. After eight days of frustrated efforts the birds still build, but more silently and stealthily; their joy over it seems to have gone. In the tower of another church near which I have been staying, these birds are welcomed. Even the vicar smiles indulgently at their noisy interpolations in his matins and evensong. They say there that they keep away the sparrows, and they prefer the jackdaws.

Near to Pendle is an old farmhouse, in which used to live a lineal descendant of one of our greatest poets, a most intelligent and observant dame, one who was keen in noting all phenomena of land and sky. She was not very accurate in the use of our longer words, but was always at least suggestive in the choice of these; and she loved to communicate what she saw. Speaking of some unusual appearance in the sky, she would tell you that "the strollomers had strollomyed," that such and such events would shortly take place in connection with it. She watched some jackdaws one day, for hours, trying to wrench a strong grating off a chimney of a neighbour's house. After working at it in vain for a long spell, these knowing birds called their stronger relatives, the rooks of a neighbouring rookery, to their aid. These set to with a will to help them, and together they did manage partially to unfasten the grating; but it was promptly more strongly fixed again, and the builders had to go elsewhere.

I have noticed that if a jackdaw found an ash-twig unsuitable for darting down the chimney-pots of this house with, he never dropped it carelessly, but took it back to the tree from which he had procured it, and there chose a more suitable one-a lesson this for untidy workers. There is a huge unused stone quarry near to us, where legions of jackdaws can and do build, but some pairs are of an exclusive turn, like those arrogant "humans" of whom the prophet Isaiah wrote that they "desire to be placed alone in the midst of the earth." An old couple in another house near to this were awakened lately at dawn to find a pair of such intruders comfortably perching on the bottom rail of their bed. "God bless us, wife," exclaimed the man, "the devil himself has come to see us!" Mr Wells Bladen, a Staffordshire naturalist, has recorded a curious fact in connection with the nest of a jackdaw. He says: "We were hunting for nests in Sandown Park, when, with its head protruding from a hole in the dead lateral bough of an elm, we saw a starling; we tried to start it, but without avail. Addison Yates climbed the tree, and, sitting astride the bough (which was some fifteen feet from the ground), took hold of the bird and found it dead; it was quite warm, and we could not see any injury. He then commenced to investigate the cause and explore the hole, which he declared to have a vile odour, and from which he next drew the hinder part of a great spotted woodpecker, then the wings of two jackdaws, and fragments of eggshells. All this time there was a hissing going on in the hole, and we were in a state of great excitement. Next he drew out one by one

ten young stoats, one or two days old. I now placed a ladder to the broken end of the bough, which was hollow, and endeavoured to make the old one bolt, for a long time unsuccessfully, she continuing to spit and hiss. At last she came out with a rush and fell to the ground, which we reached almost as soon, and then commenced an exciting chase; she managed to escape us, and took refuge in a rabbit hole, at the entrance to which next morning she was found dead in a trap, which we had procured from the keepers."

Mr Wells Bladen has also recorded the curious fact that in the neighbourhood of Moddershall, Staffordshire, in a large group of Scotch firs, he found five large domed nests, which had been built by jackdaws. They were bulky, two and a half feet in diameter, and of the same depth, constructed of sticks; the nest cavity was filled with

cowhair and wool-there was no earth or clay, with which magpies line their nests. The whole colony in that group of firs had similar nests, and a rustic at work near said, in answer to some enquiries, "Jackdaws allus builds them kind o' nesses." In Morris's " History of British Birds" we find "Some of the jackdaws in Woburn Park . . . have taken to placing them in some of the branches of Scotch firs," but these were not dome-shaped. They have also repaired old rooks nests and used them, but Mr Wells Bladen considers the Moddershall birds as unique in this habit of building domed

nests.

LORD LILFORD'S NOTES

As the black or rather brown-headed gull almost invariably breeds inland, and the great skua, a somewhat rare bird, sticks entirely to salt water, I should say that the former bird is the one of the gull family that suffers least from the skua. The bird that suffers most from him is the kittiwake, but the other skuas rob all the other gulls. I do not know that any, except the great skua, actually pursue, capture, and devour other gulls. The lesser black-backed gull is the worst egg-thief of all the gulls, but the whole family is well-nigh omnivorous.

As a rule, in most parts of England, wagtails, with the exception of the so-called "Grey" wagtail which is mentioned, are conspicuous by their rarity in severe weather.

It is more than doubtful if the white or barn-owl "hoots." The usual cry is a harsh and prolonged screech; the young birds make a hissing "snore." The tawny, brown, wood or ivy owl is the

hooter.

I know very well that in severe weather, such as we now have, many birds are driven to feed upon holly-berries faute de mieux, but what I want to find out is what birds habitually devour them under ordinary circumstances; and about the mistletoe berries I should also like accurate information.

(A few days later.) I am glad to hear that "A Son of the Marshes" agrees with me that holly-berries are only taken by birds in

stress of weather, and even then only by a few species. I cannot say that I consider his reason as the main cause of abstention from this fruit, although it may be one of them. Holly-berries are very acrid and unpleasant. His experience with regard to mistletoe berries goes far in support of mine; but mistletoe thrushes do feed on those berries when hard pressed, and I have fair evidence of one or two other species doing so in the same circumstances.

Several waxwings have been shot recently in this county (Northamptonshire), and two fairly good specimens were sent to me.1

A "Son of the Marshes" says: "Whether or no the mistletoe thrush really feeds, as some represent, on the berries of that vegetable parasite, I am not able to say, never having seen him at it. Close at hand, hanging right over the river, are fine bunches of mistletoe quite as large as currant bushes; and there they will continue to hang, as the trees on which they grow are 'quiver-leaf aspens '-trees that no climber would trust himself on, for the wood is very brittle. At all times of the day, off and on, I have watched these great bunches, but not one single bird of any species have I ever yet seen feeding on their fine crop of berries. Yet I do not assert that the berries are never eaten by this fine thrush. I simply state that neither in the Kentish orchards nor among Surrey hills have I noted the fact." 2

THE GREAT SKUA.-EXTRACT FROM THE REPORT OF THE SOCIETY, FOR THE PROTECTION OF BIRDS,

1901.

"An enquiry of some importance concerning the preservation of a rare British species, was undertaken by the Society in the summer. Among the eggs catalogued for sale at Steven's Auction Rooms on June 20th, 1900, were eleven clutches of the eggs of the great skua, taken in 1899. There being reason to believe that these came from the Isle of Foula (Shetland), letters were at once written to Mr Ewing Gilmour, the present owner of the Island, to Mrs Traill, the resident

1 Waxwings were unusually numerous in the South of England in the winter of 1894-5.-J. A. O.

2 This question is one of interest and possibly of importance, since some bird lovers are writing against the use of holly and mistletoe-in church decoration especially-as being a robbery of legitimate bird food.—J. A. O.

factor, and to a number of gentlemen likely to give information and assistance, the Society offering to bear the expense of a watcher if necessary. As Professor Newton wrote, moreover, that not a day was to be lost if the great skua was to be saved from extermination in the near future, the Society despatched a representative, Mr H. Nugent Colam, to make investigations on the spot, to report as to the advisability of a prosecution should the offenders be traced, and to arrange, if possible, for the better protection of the birds during the breeding season in future. It appears that the nesting area of the great skua on Foula is spread over at least a couple of square miles, and is so situated on the hill-tops that watching the ground would be exceedingly difficult, especially as mist often envelopes the hills wherever the crofters graze their cattle. The crofters are extremely poor, so that heavy bribes offered by tourists and collectors for birds' eggs must be a severe temptation.

"There does not appear to be immediate danger of the great skua, and steps will be taken this spring by Mr Gilmour and Mr Traillboth of whom are keenly interested in the preservation of the birds -to have the breeding ground closely and systematically watched.

"The greatest enemies of the gull tribe in the Shetlands are apparently the French fishermen from the ports of Dieppe, Boulogne, and Gravelines, as they catch the birds with hooks and use them as bait. The Society having heard of the rescue of skuas tied down as decoys which was effected by some Shetlanders belonging to the crew of the smack, Catherine, sent these men a reward, hoping that it might be an incentive to others to do likewise.”

BLACK JANUARY

"The blackest month in all the year

Is the month of Janiveer."-Old Proverb.

EVEN if visible, the sun hardly rises before eight, and sets again at four or soon after. The shortest day is passed; but, while Nature out-ofdoors scarcely vouchsafes the merest whisper of an approaching Spring, we do not yet perceive that the time of daylight is lengthening. As the heat of any day culminates after noon, so it is in January that we