COMMON JAY. 571 
. 
are favourite places of this bird; and in these situations if you do not 
meet with it, you have but to thank the cruel gamekeeper and observe 
the bird’s gaudy plumes swaying to and fro in the wind as it hangs nailed 
in the keeper’s “museum,” in company with a whole army of weasels, 
Magpies, and a few Sparrow-Hawks and Kestrels, once ornaments of the 
solitudes around you. The Jay is also found in the large shrubberies 
near houses, especially if a thick growth of underwood is ‘there, whence 
at nightfall you may often hear its discordant scream as it searches out a 
roosting-place. It is a very shy and timid bird; and nine times out of ten 
its note is the only sign of its presence, or mayhap you will catch-a hasty 
glimpse of its varied plumage as it flits noisily away into the deepest parts 
of the cover. 
Sometimes, especially in spring, fortune may favour you, and you will 
see a regular gathering of these noisy birds. It is their pairing-time; and 
_ by exerting the utmost caution you may approach them sufficiently close 
to hear their warbling notes, confined to this season. It is only at this 
time that the Jay displays a social disposition; and the birds may 
often be heard to utter a great variety of notes, some of the modulations 
approaching almost to a song. But their wariness is none the less; and 
if you unwittingly tread upon some dead twig, or cause a branch to rustle, 
the whole troop, greatly alarmed at your intrusion, scurry off, and their 
harsh screams, now faint and indistinct in the distance, are the only signs 
of their presence. The usual note of the Jay is a harsh discordant 
scream, a hoarse rake, rake, or sometimes a clever imitation of some of the 
notes of the other birds of the forest. Respecting this presumed imitative 
power of the Jay numerous observations have been made by careful 
naturalists. Montagu states that he has heard the bird imitate the® 
mewing of a cat, the hooting of an Owl, or the neighing of a horse; 
Bewick has heard it copy to a nicety the sound made by a saw; whilst 
other observers have heard it utter correct imitations of the notes of 
various singing-birds. In confinement (where the bird is often seen) 
these powers are even more fully displayed; and consequently the bird is 
a great favourite. The Jay becomes noisiest in the evening; and _ its 
discordant notes may then be heard together with those of the Pheasant 
and the Magpie. Numbers of the birds call together, or answer each 
other from different parts of the cover, and, with the note of the Wood- 
Owl and the purr of the Nightjar, make a concert sounding singularly 
- uncanny amidst the gloom of the forest. ‘The flight of the Jay is a some- 
what laboured one, performed very irregularly and with rapid beatings of 
the wings. The Jay’s peculiar flight is seen to the greatest perfection 
when the bird is flying in the open; for in the thick cover they appear to 
scurry off amongst the branches, anxious to conceal themselves as soon as 
possible. In spring the Jay may sometimes be observed to fly at a con- 
