COUNTRY LIFE
A YEAR or two ago, when I last dared to look up one of the bedroom- chimneys usually selected by the jackdaws as a nesting-place, I brought down a quantity of debris that contained a small pair of
needlework-scissors. by had not rusted, and I concluded that they had been carried in by the jackdaws, although a friend suggested that they might have been lying in a dry corner of the chimney from the time the house was built. I was reminded of the jackdaw's habit when I saw one flying to a chimney with a bright object that might have been a broken spoon or a piece of mirror. An interest in trinkets and bright things is not confined to the crow family, although they have the soundest reputation for being thieves. Some time ago a correspon- dent mentioned that a sparrow had been giving trouble by entering a room and removing small metal odds and ends from a bowl. Every- one knows the way tomtits go for the milk-bottle tops, and I suppose many people have had them enter their houses, as we have, to strip paper from the ceiling or pull threads from the curtains.
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