10 AUGUST 1912, Page 16

HABITS OF JACKDAWS.

[TO THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."]

SIR,—Some twelve years ago a firm of opticians in Bombay regularly missed a large number of gold spectacle frames, and the thief could not be found. One day, " when nobody's dreaming of any such thing," a jackdaw hops off with two or three from a wide open window. The bird was traced to a tree-

" When the first thing they saw,

'Midst the sticks and the straw,

Were the frames in the nest of that little jackdaw !"

In this case, however, the nest was almost entirely built of gold frames. The " cheek " of the bird is notorious, so much so that, seeing an opportunity, it will snatch food from one's

hands —I am, Sir, &c., S. H. D. GANDHI, M.B. Higher Hillgate, Stockport.