JAY. 57 
Jays continue together long after the young have left the 
nest; indeed frequently until the following spring; sometimes 
small flocks of from twenty to forty collect together. They 
are easily tamed if brought up from the nest, and become 
very familiar, imitating all sorts of sounds in a facile manner. 
They are most restless birds, ever changing their position, 
raising and lowering their crests, and ever and anon uttering 
some outlandish note. 
The flight of the Jay is very observable, as heavy and 
irregular, effected with some degree of apparent difficulty, and 
in a scurrying sort of manner, as if conscious that it was a 
proscribed bird, and doomed to destruction for either real or 
supposed faults. 
As imported by its specific name, the acorn is the most 
choice ‘morceau’ of the Jay, and for them he even searches 
under the snow; but he also feeds on more delicate fruits, 
such as peas and cherries, as well as on beech-mast, nuts, and 
berries, corn, worms, cockchaffers and other insects, larve, 
frogs and other reptiles, and mice, and is deterred by no 
scruples or qualms from making away with young birds, even 
partridges, and eggs. These birds are said, in the autumn, 
to hide some food for winter use, under leaves in some secure 
place, and in holes of trees. 
Their true note is singularly harsh, and almost startling, . 
resembling the syllables ‘wrak, wrak,’ but they have a decided 
talent for mimicry, and both in their wild and their tame 
state have been heard exhibiting their acquired and varied 
accomplishments, in imitating the bleating of a lamb, the 
mewing of a cat, the neighing of a horse, the shriek of the 
buzzard, the song of the greenfinch, the human voice, the 
note of the kite, the warblings of birds, the crowing of a 
cock, the bark of a dog, and the calling of fowls to their 
food; and Bewick says, ‘we have heard one imitate the sound 
of a saw so exactly, that though it was on a Sunday, we 
could hardly be persuaded that there was not a carpenter at 
work in the house.’ 
The nest is placed in a tall bush or hedge, generally at a 
not greater elevation than about twenty or thirty feet from 
the ground, and sometimes less. It is of an open shape, 
formed of twigs and sticks, and well lined with small roots, 
grasses, and horse-hair. Some are much more cleverly con- 
structed than others. 
The eggs, five or six in number, are greenish or yellowish 
