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COMMON JAY. | 573 
the ground. Unlike the Crow and the Rook, the present species almost 
always selects a suitable situation in the lower branches of the tall 
hollies, yews, fir trees, or whitethorns, or in a thick hazel bush. Sterland 
mentions a nest he found at the top of a beech tree, 50 or 60 feet from the 
ground. A favourite place for a Jay’s nest is in some thick clustering mass 
of woodbine growing over a shrub; and it has been said to nest in a hole 
of a tree; but this was probably only where the hollow was much exposed. 
Sticks (not so coarse, however, as those used by the Magpie), sometimes 
cemented with mud, and fibrous roots are the materials used. In form 
the Jay’s nest is cup-shaped, deep, and very bulky. It is generally very 
neatly made, and on the same model as the nests of the Bullfinch, the 
Hawfinch, and the Sparrow-Hawk. The coarsest twigs are selected for the 
foundation. As the construction of the nest proceeds, finer and finer twigs 
are chosen ; and, finally, the lining is composed of roots, which often project 
above the outside structure. ‘The eggs are laid by the latter end of April, 
more frequently in the first or second week of May, and are from five to 
seven in number. They are bluish green in ground-colour, usually evenly 
and thickly speckled over the whole surface with olive-brown, and sometimes 
marked with a few streaks of rich brown. Some specimens are not so 
closely marked and have a greener appearance, as more of the ground- 
colour is visible; whilst others have the greater part of the spots collected 
in an indistinct zone round the egg. They vary in length from 1:35 to 
1:2 inch, and in breadth from 1:0 to °85 inch. 
At most times of the year the Jay is a noisy bird, and its harsh screams 
are ever heard, reminding the observer of its presence ; but in the breeding- 
season its habits undergo a marked change in this respect. It is rarely 
heard to call, save when alarmed, during the whole period of incubation, 
_and keeps so close to the cover that it will build in the shrubberies close 
to our houses, and we are only made aware of the fact when the old birds 
lead their noisy young through the trees. Only one brood is reared in 
- the season; and usually the old birds and their young form a family- 
party, and keep together through the autumn and winter. 
The migrations of the Jay are an interesting feature in its history ; and 
although the bird’s flight appears so slow, uncertain, and laborious, it is a 
fact that, in some autumns, the bird passes over enormous distances. In 
the ‘Zoologist’ for 1883, p. 1, a most graphic account bearing on this 
portion of the Jay’s economy may be found, from the able pen of Mr. John 
Cordeaux. From observations which he has been able to collect from 
various sources, but chiefly from that veteran observer of bird-life, my 
friend Mr. Gaetke of Heligoland, he establishes most clearly the fact that 
the bird is a migratory one—not from its northern forests in Scandinavia, 
but from the east, across Germany, from the forests of the Oder and the 
Vistula, and probably from the eastern limits of itsrange. From this able 
