This section is from the book "A Manual Of British Vertebrate Animals", by Leonard Jenyns. Also available from Amazon: A Manual Of British Vertebrate Animals.
Crown of the head, and upper parts of the body, bluish black; occiput and nape ash-gray.
C. Monedula, Temm. Man. d'Orn. torn. I. p. 111. Id. torn. III p. 60. Jackdaw, Mont. Orn. Diet. Selb. Must. vol. I. p. 356. pl. 31. f. 1. Bew. Brit. Birds, vol. i. p. 88.
Entire length twelve inches nine lines: length of the bill (from the forehead) one inch two lines, (from the gape) one inch five lines; of the tarsus one inch eight lines; of the tail four inches eleven lines; from the carpus to the end of the wing nine inches: breadth, wings extended, two feet three inches three lines.
Much smaller than any of the foregoing species: crown of the head, and all the upper parts of the body, black, glossed with violet-blue; occiput and nape ash-gray: wings and tail the same as the back: under parts deep black, not so much glossed as the upper: bill and feet black: irides grayish white. Varies occasionally like the last species. (Egg). Pale bluish white, spotted with ash-colour and clove-brown: long. diam. one inch seven lines; trans, diam. one inch and half a line.
Common in all parts of the country. Much attached to churches and other buildings, especially such as are in a ruinous and deserted state. Builds in such situations, as well as in the holes of decayed trees; occasionally in chimnies, and even rabbit-burrows. Nest composed of sticks mixed up occasionally with horse-dung, and lined with wool and other soft substances. Eggs four to six in number. Gregarious like the last species, with which it often associates. Feeds on a great variety of animal and vegetable substances.
(2. Pica, Cuv).
 
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