234 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



spot they can find, and steal off silently to a safe 

 distance on perceiving the slightest movement. In 

 the breeding-season the Jay is not often heard and 

 comparatively seldom seen. The nest is generally 

 well concealed, seldom at any considerable height 

 from the ground, a very favourite site being the dense 

 thickets of blackthorn in our forest-district ; we have 

 also met with a Jay's nest in a dense young spruce, 

 and often in thick hazel-coppice. The numbers of 

 our native Jays are usually reinforced by an arrival of 

 autumnal visitors during the month of October, but 

 never, in our recollection, to such an extent as in 

 1882, when, acorns being comparatively scarce, the 

 beech trees in our pleasure-grounds at Lilford were 

 visited by more birds of this species than we ever 

 saw there before. 



This bird has a wonderful power of imitating the 

 cries of various beasts and birds, and on one occasion 

 near Madrid we spent some time in pursuit of what, 

 from its call, we were convinced was a Common 

 Buzzard, but turned out to be a common Jay, which 

 had acquired the exact note of the former bird. A 

 great destruction of this species takes place on 

 account of the value put upon the blue wing-feathers 

 for making artificial flies for fishing, and every game- 

 keeper's hand is against the Jay on account of his 

 egg-stealing propensities, but the bird is still abun- 

 dant in suitable localities throughout England and 

 the southern counties of Scotland, but in Ireland is 

 by no means so generally distributed and very local. 

 We have met with this species in all parts of Europe 

 which we have visited ; it is represented in North 

 Africa and parts of Asia by very similar and closely 

 allied species. In captivity the Jay is a most amusing 



