554 



PASSERIFORMES 



Sumatra, and Java, of lovely green and l)lue, or cobalt and ultra- 

 marine hues, with some red-brown on the wing, a white tip to 

 the tail, coral-red bill and feet, and — in two cases — a black nape. 

 Our soft-plumaged Jay {Garrulus glandarius), with its black and 

 white crest and wings, black tail, reddish-fawn upper and buff under 

 parts, and patch of blue, white and black bars on the wing-coverts, 

 may represent a genus ranging over the Palaearctic Eegion, and 

 through the Himalayas, to the Burmese districts and Formosa. 

 In Japan alone four species are found. Aplielocoma and Calocitta 

 of the central parts of the New World ; the Blue Jays {Cyanocitta) 



of North 

 America; 

 Urocissa, a 

 Magpie with 

 red or yellow 

 bill and feet, 

 from India, 

 Burma, and 

 China ; and the Central and 

 South American Cyanocorax, 

 all shew more blue than Garru- 

 lus, not uncommonly on the 

 under surface. Perisoreus in- 

 faustus, the Siberian Jay, is 

 brown, grey, and olive, with 

 nmch chestnut on tlie wings, 

 tail, and abdomen, its congeners 

 being plain brown, grey, and white. Lastly, Xanthura luxuosa, 

 the Green Jay of South Texas and Mexico, is green, with yellow 

 on the abdomen and lateral rectrices, and a black and blue head ; 

 some species of the genus, which reaches southwards to Vene- 

 zuela and Bolivia, having the lower surface entirely yellow or 

 black, and others being almost blue with black on tlie head. 



The habits of the cunning voracious Crows, the gregarious 

 Eooks, the astute but bold Magpies and Jackdaws, and the more 

 shy or retiring Jays and Choughs are well known ; yet the habit 

 of posting sentinels in the Eook, the tmnbling in mid-air of that 

 bird, the Eaven, and the Jackdaw, the scolding pursuit of intruders 

 by Magpies and Jays, and the breaking of clams, bones, and the 

 like by dropping them from aloft, by the Eaven, Carrion-Crow, 



Fig. 129. — Magpie. Pica rustica. 

 (From Poachers.) 



