PIED JACKDAWS From time to time one sees or hears
about white blackbirds, blackbirds, crows and jackdaws with several white feathers in their plumage. My son told me not long ago about one of these odd birds he had seen, a jackdaw 'with as much white on it as a magpie.' I am afraid that I unfairly suggested that, in spite of all our observations, he couldn't yet dis- tinguish an immature magpie from a jackdaw. Admittedly, I was a little puzzled to think that a magpie, immature and 'daw-like, was about so late in the year, and then I saw the black and white jack- daw for myself. These odd birds seem more common at different times. I know very little about genetics and the answer to it all is probably quite a simple one so far as genes and breeding go. It may be that
these part-white birds, if not the albinos, come from the same nest, live out their time and are seen no more until nature brings together the combination capable of producing pied specimens. I have seen at least three part-white jackdaws in the past month and one part-white blackbird. There used to be an albino blackbird about here, and I used to be intrigued by a strikingly pale sparrow that, because of its un- usual colour, probably came to an early end.
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