EARLY SPRING IN SAVERNAKE FOREST 99 



The loud rasping alarm- and angry- cry of the 

 jay is a sound familiar to every one ; the cry used 

 by the bird to call his fellows together is some- 

 what different. It resembles the cry or call of 

 the carrion crow, in localities where that bird is 

 not persecuted, when, in the love season, he takes 

 his stand on the top of the nesting-tree and calls 

 with a prolonged, harsh, grating, and exceedingly 

 powerful note, many times repeated. The jay's 

 call has the same grating or grinding character, 

 but is louder, sharper, more prolonged, and in a 

 quiet atmosphere may be heard distinctly a mile 

 away. The wood is in an uproar when the birds 

 assemble and scream in concert while madly pur- 

 suing one another over the tall trees. 



At such times the peculiar flight of the jay is 

 best seen and is very beautiful. In almost all 

 birds that have short, round wings, as we may 

 see in our little wren, and in game birds, and the 

 sparrow-hawk, and several others, the wing-beats 

 are exceedingly rapid. This is the case with the 

 magpie ; the quickness of the wing-beats causes 

 the black and white on the quills to mingle and 

 appear a misty grey ; but at short intervals the 

 bird glides and the wings appear black and white 

 again. The jay, although his wings are so short 



