CORVIDZ. 239 
one in the North, and the question arose whether 
this was a mere variety of our own common Magpie 
or an accidental strageler from America, where 
there is a species of Magpie (Pica Nuttali) which 
resembles our own in every way except in the 
peculiarity of the beak, which in the American 
species is bright yellow: of course there was a 
chance of either or both of these birds having been 
brought over as pets in some vessel and escaped : 
there was another supposition, namely, that these 
two birds had been sucking eggs and that the beak 
was coloured with the yelk; but this seems scarcely 
possible, as enough of the yelk would not have stuck 
on the beak to colour it so completely as seems to 
have been the case, or indeed to colour it at all: my 
own opinion is that these yellow-beaked Magpies 
were mere varieties of our Common Magpie, and I 
do not think it very extraordinary that they should 
have varied in the direction of so nearly related a 
species. 
The eggs of the Magpie have a dull whitish green 
ground, much speckled with dull lightish brown; 
but they vary both in the shade of the ground 
colour and of the spots, as well as in size. 
Jay, Garrulus glandarius. In spite of the many 
enemies which combine against it, the Jay is still 
tolerably common throughout the county, and is 
resident all the year: it suffers, however, severely 
from the perhaps not quite unmerited attacks of the 
