COMMON JAY. 91 



that it is often difficult to extract the eggs without 

 serious damage to the hand. The birds will frequently 

 return to the same place to nest year after year. 

 Often the old nest is repaired. 



The eggs, from six to eight, are small for the size 

 of the birds. There are many varieties; they are 

 bluish or yellowish green, with greenish brown mark- 

 ings distributed all over the surface. 



COMMON JAY. 



GARRULUS GLANDARIUS. 



Family Passerid^. Sub-family Corvine. Genus Garrulus. 



Jaypie. 



The Jay is among the most beautiful of our resi- 

 dent birds, and is found in all the wooded districts of 

 England. In Scotland it is rare, and in Ireland it 

 occurs in the southern parts locally. We are most of 

 us probably more familiar with Jays dead than alive, 

 from seeing them either hung to a tree or nailed out- 

 side a keeper's cottage. Here again, as with the 

 Magpies and Crows, the game is the cause. Gar- 

 deners, too, lose no opportunity of destroying them, 

 as they are particularly fond of cherries and also of 

 peas ; and we fear that not even the beauty of their 

 plumage will prevent their ultimate extermination. A 

 cinnamon brown is the prevailing colour of the Jay ; 

 the thighs, belly and upper coverts of the tail are 

 white, the rest of the tail black. But the wings are 

 its chief beauty ; they are black on the inner part, but 

 barred on the outer part with black, white and blue. 

 There is a crest on the top of the head of bluish-white 

 feathers, the smaller ones being tipped with black. 



