Till'. rOMMDN .I,\v. 261 



are completely fleflged and eiiimble of tiiuliiig tlieir own food. Tlicy are, indeed, nuieh 

 more predatory than the magpies, though considerably smaller. They occasionally 

 jioiuice on birds, and kill and de%our them ; they are very destructive to the eggs of 

 small birds, and the}' will eagerly catch mice. 



One of the most remarkable peculiarities of the jays is the volubility of their sounds. 

 The alarm-note the bird utters on the appearance of danger, or even of a stranger in its 

 haunts, is extremely harsh, but it has a love-note singularly soft, " yet so low and appa- 

 rently cautious, that it seems whispering to its mate, as if to hide their afl'ections and 

 labours from the other tenants of the grove. Even then it is vorj- imitative, and though 

 it does not attempt the songs of the warblers, it is verj' adroit at bleating, screaming, 

 neighing, and, in short, imitating all the harsher sounds.'' Bewick says: — "We have 

 heard one imitate the sound made by the action of a saw so exactly, that though it was 

 on a Sunday, we could hardly bo persuaded that the person who kept it had not a carpenter 

 at work in the house. Another, at the approach of cattle, had learned to hound a ciu- dog 

 upon them, by whistling and calling upon him by his name. At last, during a severe frost, 

 the dog wa.s by that means excited to attack a cow big with calf, when the poor animal 

 fell on the ice, and was much hurt ; the jay was complained of as a niusance, and its 

 owner was obliged to destroy it." 



Mudie, another careful observer, remarks : — " Words in which the letter /■ occurs are 

 soonest learned, not only by the jay, but by most birds that can be taught to articrdate. 

 That is easily accounted for by the unj'ielding nature of the mandible, which forces the 

 air to come out between the upper part of the tongue and the palate, on ^^■hich that triUs. 

 A man cannot easily pronoxmce the ;■ in any but Xorthumberland fashion, if he grins 

 the while ; and those who use the tongue simpering and softl3% merely touch but do not 

 jjronoimce it." 



Mr. Gould, who gives three figures of foreign jays in his " Century of Birds," justly 

 remarks, that " the close affinity which the Garriihs Inuccohdtts bears to some species 

 inhabiting tliu United States and ilexico is worthy of remark, as a corroboration of the 

 fact so often insisted on, that similar forms of ornithology are found in countries viidely 

 separated from each other, whose temperatures are alike." Indeed, we are reminded by 

 the last-mentioned bird of the Gi/rri(/i(s rri.'iffifus, the blue jay of America ; while 

 another, the (iarruJits /li.sprciilark, recalls the idea of the connnon jay. 



Another ^•e^y ornamental species — 



Proud of ciprulcan stains 



From heaven's unsullied arch purloined — • 



is that mentioned by Pallas as having been shot by Steller when Behring's ci-ew landed 

 upon the coast of America. It is the Cornis Stelkri, of Latham, by whom it was first 

 described from a specimen in Sir Joseph Banks' collection from Nootka Sound. A laiger 

 and most magnificent bird is the Columbia jay (GarriiJiii< BKllokii, Wagler ; G. guhrr- 

 natrix, Temm.), figured in IMr. Audubon's splendid work ; the colour is bright blue, with 

 a lofty crest of separate plumes, the throat and breast black, the abdomen whitish, and 

 two of the central tail feathers extending far beyond the others. It occurs chiefiy in 

 Mexico and California. 



THE (HOUGH.* 



This very handsome bird is locally distributed, but is, perhaps, not so rare as has 

 been generally accounted. In Britain it only frequents sea-coasts, never venturing far 



if FrcfiiUis Graculus. — tjelbv. 



