463 J A V 



methods that in the case of this species are only too easy and too 

 effectual — by proffering temptation to trespass which it is not in 

 Jay-nature to resist, and accordingly the bird runs great chance of 

 total extirpation. Notwithstanding the war carried on against the 

 Jay, its varied cries and active gesticulations shew it to be a 

 sprightly bird, and at a distance that renders its beauty-spots 

 invisible, it is yet conspicuous by its cinnamon - coloured body 

 and pure white tail-coverts, which contrast with the deep black 

 and rich chestnut that otherwise mark its plumage, and even 

 the young at once assume a dress closely resembling that of the 

 adult. The nest, generally concealed in a leafy tree or bush, is 

 carefully built, with a lining formed of fine roots neatly interwoven. 

 Herein from four to seven eggs, of a greenish- white closely freckled 

 so as to seem suffused with light olive, are laid in March or April, 

 and the young on quitting it accompany their parents for some 

 weeks. 



Though the common Jay of Europe inhabits nearly the whole 

 of this quarter of the globe south of 64° N. lat., its territory in the 

 east of Russia is also occupied by G. brandti, a kindred form, which 

 replaces it on the other side of the Ural, and ranges thence across 

 Siberia to Japan ; and again on the Lower Danube and thence to 

 Constantinople the nearly-allied G. krynicM (which alone is found 

 in southern Russia, Caucasia, and Asia Minor) shares its haunts 

 with it.-*^ It also crosses the Mediterranean to Algeria and Morocco ; 

 but there, as in southern Spain, it is probably but a winter immi- 

 grant. The three forms just named have the widest range of any 

 of the genus. Next to them come G. atricapillus, reaching from 

 Syria to Beloochistan, G. japonicus, the ordinary Jay of southern 

 Japan, and G. sinensis, the Chinese bird. Other forms have a much 

 more limited area, as G. cervicalis, the local and resident Jay of 

 Algeria, G. hyrcanus, found on the southern shores of the Caspian 

 Sea, and G. taivanus confined to the island of Formosa. The most 

 aberrant species referred to the true Jays is the G. lidthi of Bona- 

 parte (Froc. Zool. Soc. 1850, p. 80, Aves, pi. xvii.), which, though 

 said to come from some part of Japan (Salvadori, Atii Accad. Torino, 

 vii. p. 474), seems not to have been met with there, and its proper 

 country is not known. 



Leaving the true Jays of the genus Garrulus, we may next 

 consider those of a group, named, in 1831, Dysornithia by Swainson 

 {F. Bor.-Am. ii. p. 495) and Ferisoreus by Bonaparte (Saggio &c. 

 Anim.. Vertebr. p. 43),- containing two species — one the Lanius 



^ Fiu'tlier information will possibly shew that these districts are not occupied 

 at the same season of the year by the two forms. 



^ Recent writers have preferred the latter term, though it was only used sub- 

 generically by its author, who assigned to it no characters, which the inventor of 

 the former was careful to do, regarding it at the same time as a genus. 



