298 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



XXVIII. 



THE JAY, STARLING, AND KINGFISHER 



IN AYRSHIRE. 



BY DAVID LANDSBOROUGH. 



[Read 27th December, 1887, &c] 



The Jay, Garrulus glandarius, Lin. 



About seventy years ago the Jay was not uncommon 

 in the Loudon and. neighbouring woods, but was 

 almost extirpated as being destructive to game by 

 eating the eggs and young birds. The gamekeepers 

 said of it that it was cunning as a monkey, and 

 could rarely be surprised. They accomplished their 

 object, however, by searching for and destroying the 

 nests. 



Mr. M'Queen, Mauchline, tells me he has seen the 

 Jay years ago in the Barskimming woods. Mr. 

 Scobie, Hurlford, informs me that he has several 

 times seen it in Ayrshire. Mr. Crosbie, one of my 

 elders, tells me that in the year 1829 his father 

 brought a pair of young Jays from the woods of 

 Coilton, near Tarbolton. Mr. Roderick Kennedy, 

 Kilmarnock, about the same time found a Jay's nest 

 in the Craufurdland woods, about three miles from 

 Kilmarnock, containing two birds, which he took. 

 One died while young from having been fed on 

 unsuitable worms, and the other he had for years. 



The Starling, Stumus vulgaris, Lin. 



The Starling and the Jay are closely related; but 

 while the Jay is much scarcer than formerly, 

 the Starling has within the last sixty years 

 multiplied in Ayrshire more than any other bird. 

 It has indeed made an increase only to be paralleled 



