is8 Thk Jay 



part of it while with its beak it tugs at another, after the manner of a hawk. 

 My Jay would eat the orange berries of the Solanuni, if hungry, but did not care 

 in the least for yew and privet berries. Jay No. 2 devoured peas by making a 

 hole in the side of the pod, and after it had got them all out it would amuse 

 itself by pulling the pod to pieces, no doubt to look for more. Sparrow's eggs 

 dropped into the cage were adroitly caught before they reached the bottom, and 

 a mouse or a .shrew was very acceptable. Being put into the same cage as a 

 Carrier Pigeon and a Turtle Dove, in spite of a disabled wing, and though the 

 cage was nine feet long, the Jay soon despatched the latter by pecking its back." 



As cage-birds Jays are great favourites, not only on account of their wonderful 

 powers of mimicry, but because, as Lord Lilford says, "In captivity the Jay is a 

 most amusing pet and becomes very tame. There is little trouble in keeping it 

 in good health and condition, as in the matter of food scarcely anything comes 

 amiss. We have found, however, that more than one of these birds in our 

 possession preferred the eggs of small birds to any other food." 



I became po.ssessed of a young English Jay in the summer of 1898, and 

 reared it satisfactorily ; it proved to be the largest and most beautiful cock bird 

 that I ever saw, either alive or dead. Although gifted in imitating cats, dogs, 

 distant poultry, the sound of trumpet and jews'-harp, the splashing of water and 

 mixing of bird-seed, I could only succeed in teaching it to say two words — " Hullo 

 Jimmy ! " which, however, have become its favourite utterances : it is extremely 

 playful and expects me to stop and have a game with it every morning at feeding- 

 time. For staple food I give a mixture of two parts crumb of stale household 

 bread, one part powdered biscuit, one part egg, one part " Century Food." It 

 also has fruit (not orange, it won't eat that, although my Blue-bearded Jay is 

 fond of it), nuts, peas; insects of various kinds, especially cockroaches, worms, 

 spiders and occasionally a dead mouse or bird ; rarely a little minced raw beef. 



