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BLACK SQUIRREL.

four sides, and the whole kernel secured, leaving the portions of the hard shell untouched. Not satisfied with this kind of food, it commits great depredations on the green corn and young wheat, thus rendering itself obnoxious to the farmer.

In Pensylvania a law existed offering three pence for every squirrel destroyed, and in the year 1749, the sum of eight thousand pounds was paid out of the treasury, in premiums for their destruction. The inhabitants of several of the northern and western states assemble together on an appointed day to have a squirrel hunt. Arranging themselves in two opposite parties, each under a leader, they range the forest in every direction, and before evening these gunners bag an almost incredible number of squirrels. At the evening rendezvous, the party who produces the less number bears the expense of a bountiful supper, a penalty which stimulates the gunners to the greatest activity in destroying them.

JACKDAW.

THE jackdaw is a very common and well-known bird. It is of a general black colour, glossed with blue, the back part of the head and neck a fine grey, the bill black, the eye light grey, the forehead black, the breast dusky black, the legs black.

Several varieties of this species are given by different authors; some entirely black, without the grey on the head and neck; others quite white, or mixed black and white. It is found in Denmark, France, and Germany, also in Russia, and the western parts of Siberia; but in most of these places it is found to be migratory.

This very common bird frequents old towers, ruined buildings, and high cliffs, where it builds, as well as in holes of trees. The nest is made of sticks, and lined with wool and other soft materials; the eggs are five or six in number, bluish, spotted with black.

These birds are gregarious, and frequently flock together with rooks, feeding in the same manner on grain and insects; they are fond of cherries, and will devour carrion in severe weather. They are seen frequently to perch on the backs of sheep, not only to rob the animals of their wool to line its nest, but also to pick out the insects with which it is infested. They are very docile, tractable, and mischievous birds, easily tamed, and may be taught to talk. Some instances are mentioned of their breeding in rabbit-holes.

At Cambridge, says Mr. J. Denson, there is good accommodation for jackdaws in the abundant receptacles for their nests which the various colleges and churches

supply, and jackdaws are numerous at Cambridge. The Botanic Garden there has three of its four sides enclosed by thickly built parts of the town, and has five parish churches and five colleges within a short flight of it. The jackdaws inhabiting these and other churches and colleges, had discovered that the wooden labels placed near the plants, whose names they bore, in the Botanic Garden, would serve well enough for their nests, instead of twigs from trees, and that they possessed the greater convenience of being prepared ready for use, and placed very near home. I cannot give a probable idea of the number of labels which the jackdaws annually removed; but from the shaft of one chimney in Free School Lane, which was close beside the Botanic Garden, no less than eighteen dozen of these labels were taken out and brought to Mr. Arthur Briggs, the curator of the Botanic Gardens, who received and counted them.