The Jackdaw and the Doves

"Look at all that corn," said the jackdaw. He sat on the roof, thin and hungry, and peered down into the dovecote, where the doves had corn for breakfast and corn for supper and there was always more.

He found a pot of white paint. He painted one wing and then the other, and he went on painting, head and tail, until not one black feather could be seen. Then he hopped into the dovecote and kept his beak shut.

The doves looked him up and down, but he did not make a sound, so they moved along and let him eat. For many days he ate and kept quiet, ate and kept quiet, and he grew round and sleek.

Then one morning he forgot. "Chack-chack!" he said with his mouth full. "Good corn! Chack!"

The doves froze. "That is no dove!" they cried, and they flew at him with their sharp beaks and pecked him out of the door.

Back he flew to the jackdaws, sore and hungry. "It is me!" he called. "Let me in!" The jackdaws stared at the strange white bird. "We do not know you," they said. And they drove him away too.