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Ural to the Atlantic. In many localities in England and Scotland it is a decreasing species. 
Tn the eastern counties, and also the south-eastern, the ranks of the resident jays are swollen 
in the autumn by occasional flights, presumably coming from the Continent. These spread 
over the country, or pass through from north-east to south-west. 
IV. Food. 
The Jay is practically omnivorous, and it is credited with eating a great variety of 
substances. Principally its food is insects and their larve, beetles, worms, slugs, snails, 
fruit and wild berries, beech-mast, acorns, oak-galls, grain of allsorts, mice and shrews, eggs, 
and young birds. 
V. Characteristics. 
The Jay iscautious, shy, and retiring inits habits, frequenting woodlands, plantations, copses, 
thick hedgerows full of timber trees, and fox covers. It will announce its presence in those soli- 
tudes by harsh unmusical screams, but in the nesting season the wary bird remains mute for 
the purposes of concealment, retiring before an intruder in short flights from tree to tree, or 
dropping beneath the top of the underwood and hiding in the densest part of the covert. In 
the shooting season, when much disturbed by beaters and repeated firing, jays will leave a 
wood, retreating, when practicable, along some well-timbered hedgerow, from tree to tree. 
Their undulating flight on these occasions is laborious, uncertain, and weak, with slow beats 
of the wings. It is able, however, on migration to cross the North Sea, and with apparent 
ease, in large flights. Jays feed much on the ground beneath trees and underwood, and do 
not, as a rule, care to go far from covert, or into large open spaces and fields, such as are 
resorted to by rooks and jackdaws. It will, however, visit plots of peas in the open field, the 
temptation overpowering its usually discreet movements. On the ground the Jay does not 
walk, but advances by a series of hops. 
The nest is a compact structure of sticks and twigs, lined with fine roots and dead 
grasses, often placed in the fork of a timber tree, or a fir, holly, yew, or hawthorn. A 
favourite spot is against the ivy-covered bole of a tree, or concealed behind a mass of 
climbing honeysuckle. The eggs—five to seven—are greenish-grey, densely spotted with 
olive-brown, more particularly at the large end, where they sometimes form a zone. 
VI. Protection. 
Wild Birds Protection Act, 1880.—This bird does not appear in the Schedule to the 
Act, but has been added in the following counties :— 
Scotianp: Banff; Haddington; Midlothian. 
In these Counties any owner or occupier, or other person, taking, killing, etc., any Jay 
during close season,* or possessing or selling one of them after 15th March, is liable to a 
penalty of £1 tor each bird. In all other places anyone, other than the owner or occupier of 
land, or his agent, taking, killing, etc., a Jay during close season, or possessing or selling a 
Jay after 15th of March, is liable to a penalty of 5s. for each bird. 
Wild Birds Protection Act, 1894.—The eggs of the Jay are protected in the following 
Counties :-— 
Scornanp: Banff; Haddington; Midlothian. 
And in the breeding areas established in the following Counties :— 
Enetanp: Northumberland (Holy Island); York—Hast Riding ; Cambridge ; 
Cheshire; Norfolk ; East Suffolk; Devon; Essex; Kent; Isle of Wight. 
ScornanpD: Fife. 
Any owner or other person taking or destroying the eggs of a Jay in the above-named 
areas is liable to a penalty of £1 for each egg. 
* Generally from 1st March to 3lst July; but in some counties from Ist February to 31st August mA 
each year. A further period may be obtained through the Act of 1896. 
