Mexborough and Swinton Times February 24, 1928

The Beloved Vagabond

Mrs L Hill 82, Charles Street, Swinton has a tame jackdaw which is as clever a member of its tribe as we have ever heard of.

Three years ago she found “Jack“ as she calls him, in a deplorable mess of tar and bird lime. She took pity on him and cared for him, and he is now a very important member of the household.

Jack is a dexterous rogue and could give points to every Thieves Kitchen in Europe, but his knavery is quite harmless, for Mrs. Hill can compel him to disgorge his spoil or reveal its hiding place at any time.

One day she missed a shilling and a sixpence, and. by threats and entreaties so worked upon Jack’s conscience that the next: day (reluctantly; it must be confessed) he flopped to her with the sixpence in his beak, and the day after with the shilling.

A Times reporter spent an interesting half-hour the other day watching his antics. To be candid, Jack did not take to the Times man, but to  be just to the Times man it, should be added that this Jack does not take to any stranger and will peck all unfamiliar ankles, male or female.    _However, at his mistress’s bidding he went through all his as. Jack is devoted to his mistress, and will do anything for her. A helps her to light the fire and will fly a score of times from the coal bucket to the grate with fragments of coal in his beak. He can even take a match out of the box and strike it.

He also fetches the letters from the letter-box and if he is not watched he will even open them and

Regularly he flys round the houses for exercise, and on his return if the door is closed will rap at the window. He has a daily bath and if the water is not warm enough he will signify the same by splashing all over the kitchen floor. He selects his own time for the bath, and marches solemnly to the tub at the appointed moment. He can even croak his own name, but a bird so eloquent in action has no need of speech.

He delights to make nests, and will ransack the house for paper and Wragg. His favourite nesting place is the top of the kitchen range, and when he is nested there only Mrs Hill may safely disturb him.