58 THE JAY 
mer is a large bird, as big as a Jay, and} is only an occasional 
visitor in this country, and whose habits partake of those of the 
Crows and Woodpeckers. The propriety of its name is question- 
able, according to Yarrell, who says that ‘it cannot crack nuts’. 
Here perhaps there may be some little mistake. Its name is 
evidently a translation of the French Cassenoix. In England we 
mean by ‘nuts’ filberts or hazel-nuts; but the French word 
noix is applied exclusively to walnuts, our nuts being moisettes, 
or ‘little nuts’; and French authors are agreed that its food 
consists of insects, fruits, and walnuts; that is, the ordinary 
diet of its relative, the Rook, whose fondness for walnuts is noto- 
rious. It lays its eggs in the holes of trees, and, except in the 
breeding season, is more or less gregarious in its habits. 
THE JAY 
GARRULUS GLANDARIUS 
Feathers of the crest greyish white, streaked with black; a black moustache 
from the corners of the beak; general plumage reddish grey, darker 
above ; primaries dingy black ; secondaries velvet-black and pure white ; 
inner tertials rich chestnut; winglet and greater coverts barred 
with black, white, and bright blue; upper and under tail-coverts 
pure white; iris bright blue; beak black; feet livid brown. Length 
thirteen and a half inches ; breadth twenty-two inches. Eggs dull green, 
minutely and thickly-speckled with olive-brown. 
THERE exists among gamekeepers a custom of selecting a certain 
spot in preserved woods, and there suspending, as trophies of their 
skill and watchfulness, the bodies of such destructive animals 
as they have killed in the pursuit of their calling. They are gener- 
ally those of afew stoats or weasels, a Hawk, a Magpie, an owl, and 
two or three Jays. All these animals are judged to be destructive 
to game, and are accordingly hunted to the death, the Jay, perhaps, 
with less reason than the rest, for though it can hardly resist the 
temptation of plundering, either of eggs or young, any nest, whether 
of Partridge or Pheasant, that falls in its way, yet it does not sub- 
sist entirely upon animal food, but also upon acorns and various 
other wild fruits. Its blue feathers are much used in the manu- 
facture of artificial flies. Nevertheless, owing to their cautious 
and wary habits, there are few wooded districts in which they are 
not more or less numerous. Their jarring unconnected note, 
which characterizes them at all seasons, is in spring and summer 
varied by their song proper, in which I have never been able to 
detect anything more melodious than an accurate imitation of the 
noise made by sawyers at work, though Montagu states that ‘ it 
will, sometimes, in the spring utter a sort of song in a soft and 
pleasing manner, but so low as not to be heard at any distance ; 
