JAT. NUTCEACKEE. 281 



these birds, which, occasionally, present themselves 

 during a day's covert shooting, and many a gamekeeper, 

 who prides himself on the extinction of *^ vermin," is 

 suddenly disgusted, on his rounds, by finding more 

 noisy jays, during one day's round, than he has had a 

 chance of shooting in a twelvemonth. Yet these, most 

 probably, are but native bred birds, which, forming 

 themselves into companies, as is their custom late in 

 the season, rove from one plantation to another in 

 search of acorns and berries as food becomes scarce 

 during sharp weather. The far larger bodies, however, 

 occasionally observed, can scarcely be accounted for in 

 the same manner, of which a very memorable instance, 

 occurring near the coast in the adjoining county, is 

 thus given by Messrs. Sheppard and Whitear : — " Some 

 years since as two gentlemen were sporting at Tunstal, 

 in Suffolk, distant about five miles from the sea, they 

 observed an extraordinary flight of jays, passing in a 

 single line from seaward towards the interior. This 

 line extended further than the eye could reach, and 

 must have consisted of some thousands. Several of 

 them were killed as they passed. But the firing at 

 them did not occasion the rest to deviate from their 

 line of flight." I have also observed these birds in some 

 years to be extremely plentiful in spring, and have 

 known many pairs killed as late as the beginning of 

 April, when they may be supposed to pass us again on 

 their return northwards. 



NUCIFRACA CARYOCATACTES (Linnaeus). 



NUTCEACKEE. 



Three specimens of this rare and most accidental 

 visitant to our shores have been killed in Norfolk up to 

 2o 



