Jackdaws brought up from the nest are among the most amusing and attractive pets about a garden; they shew much more personal attachment than the magpie, and are much less tricky and mischievous out-of-doors; but they have a great desire to belong to the family-circle, and it is scarcely possible to keep them out, when they are determined to be in, and once admitted, their meddlesome curiosity, though amusing, is apt to become troublesome. These birds have a good deal of character, which is always interesting; they will walk about and amuse themselves among the shrubs for hours at a time, when one wing is cut, but always seem, even then, on the watch for a human companion : for they certainly have a dog-like tendency to associate with any one they are attached to, recognising the individual they prefer, and allowing themselves to be handled and even stroked by that one, while they will snap at any other hand held out. More than once we have had jackdaws so resolutely bent on being house-pets that keeping the lower windows closed was of little avail; they would get in at any open window, and then make their way upstairs or downstairs, as the case might be, to the sitting-room, where they would announce their arrival by cawing till the door was opened and they were admitted to the room. Their thievish propensities are well known; and one great attraction of the sitting-rooms is no doubt the variety of small articles lying about, with which they will (if permitted) fly out of the window. I remember once, when absent from home, residing in lodgings in a country town, being puzzled by the disappearance of a comb from the dressing-table, which stood in the window; the comb was found on the pavement below the window, but next day it was found on the window-sill, and the articles on the table were all out of their places, and yet no one had been in the room. The mystery was explained in a day or two, when, coming home from a walk, I went upstairs and found a jackdaw on the table pulling with all his might at a large brush, which he had dragged nearly to the window, when my entrance disturbed him, and he flew off, and I heard afterwards that he was a notorious character in the place, though his young master declared this was the first time he had ever been convicted of entering a house with intent to steal. The worst of having any of this tribe domesticated in the garden is, their tendency to seek out nests and eat the eggs : the jackdaw is not so bad in this way as the magpie; nevertheless, we gave up keeping these birds from their inveterate tendency to destroy the nests of the blackbird and thrush. Still somehow or other, Jacky contrived to look innocent on these occasions, and we were always willing to lay the blame on the wild magpies, and let our saucy favourite escape.

The tendency, or faculty, of becoming personally attached to one individual is possessed largely by the parrot tribe, from the large snowy cockatoo down to the brilliant little paroquet. The former bird, from its gentleness and sagacity, is very attractive - much more so than the macaw, which, to my mind, is both ugly and disagreeable, his noisy screams for notice are so obtrusive, very different from the quiet coaxing manners of the cockatoo. Not but what he can make noise enough, too, when he likes : one that we had for twenty-four years could make his voice heard a distance of two miles off. On a calm summer evening I have heard his harsh cry at that distance, and knew that he was desirous of being taken indoors. His power of mimicry is certainly curious; and though we have no reason to believe that any of that tribe attach any meaning to the words they learn to utter, yet they have certainly some association of ideas with words, which almost looks as if they did so. For instance, in general, when Cockatoo heard any one's name called, he would sometimes repeat the sound, but frequently he would call out "What?" this being almost always done if the kitchen door was suddenly opened and one of the servants called for, shewing that he had observed this answer given there, and connected it with the name being called out. I have not had sufficient variety of experience to determine whether this faculty of imitating and acquiring words varies in different individuals of the same species - whether some have the "gift of the gab" more than others, or whether it is a question of training and education. I incline to the former theory; for I have seen cockatoos who seldom spoke, and scarcely ever of their own accord added either words or sounds to their vocabulary; whereas the one we had seemed to vary his conversation perpetually, having few set phrases, but whistling, singing, or repeating words, according as he heard those around him doing. On the contrary, one paroquet we had, though a most affectionate familiar bird, never uttered a word, or shewed any disposition to imitate sounds, while another of the same species used to talk incessantly. I have observed the same difference in parrots, and, what is more uncommon, in other birds. The various ravens we have had certainly possessed this imitative faculty in different degrees; some taking pleasure in barking when they heard the dog do so, or in quacking like a duck, while the others remained satisfied with their original gifts, varied as these are. Some canaries have a power of imitating the song of other birds kept in the same cage, while others keep true to their native notes : the siskin readily acquires some notes from the canary; but though the bullfinch can be taught to whistle tunes, and seems to prefer those thus acquired to its own song, I have never known one who imitated the song of his fellow-captives. I remember a tame sparrow who used to make desperate efforts to sing like a canary; foiling in this, he would rush at the cage and endeavour to pull off the feathers of the rival songsters - an endeavour in which he was much more successful than in his attempts at melody.