244 CATALOGUE OF BIRDS. 



fact that the letting value of a shooting depends on 

 the amount of game it carries with it, it naturally 

 follows that honest keepers do what they can to keep 

 these rascally birds down as much as possible. It 

 is their duty, and they are paid to do it ; so, when 

 sentimentalists are loud in their lament over their 

 destruction I am not with them, for they are looked 

 upon as vermin by all sportsmen and game 

 preservers, and their destruction means reproduction 

 elsewhere of something much more useful. 



The Jay, however, is not soon likely to be extir- 

 pated ; in Scotland, perhaps, more than anywhere 

 else its numbers have been sensibly reduced, owing 

 probably to the fact that the Scotch keeper is one of 

 the best and most to be depended on amongst that 

 class of men ; but, in spite of all, the Jay holds his 

 own fairly well, for there is no more wary or 

 cunning bird in existence ; nor one more restless, 

 active, energetic ; he is perpetually on the move, so 

 that when you hear his harsh screech, and try to 

 follow him up and locate him, he is off again to 

 some other tree long before you can get anywhere 

 near ; and as he always takes care to stick to the 

 densest parts of the wood he may fairly be termed 

 a very un-get-at-able bird. 



In regard to the Jay's harsh call-note, I append 

 an extract from Mr. W. H. Hudson's book : "When 

 disturbed in his woodland haunts he utters a scream 

 that startles the hearer, so loud and harsh and 

 piercing is it. Richard Jefferies well describes it as 

 being like the sound made in tearing a piece of 



