288 GOLDFINCH. 



and fanned, and the wings opened and clapped-to, 

 as in the case of the Magpie. Restless, excitable, 

 vociferous, the Jay outdoes even the Magpie in these 

 respects. Like the latter, it grubs the ground, takes 

 toll of fruit and berry trees, eats eggs, and upon 

 occasion will strip and pick a field-mouse. Thus it 

 may be met almost anywhere in wooded country, 

 though seldom far from cover. It has a rasping 

 shriek as sudden and loud as the yell of the Green 

 Woodpecker, and a lower note in wliich it soliloquises 

 as with suppressed excitement when intruders are 

 about. In its brilliant and bold colouring it is 

 quite unique among birds of its size, and for pur- 

 poses of identification this feature alone sufiices. 



GOLDFINCH. — Plate 120. Length, 5 J inches. 

 Crown and band descending from hind-crown to 

 shoulder, black ; space between bill and eye also 

 black ; forehead and throat crimson ; back light 

 brown ; sides of head and under parts white, the 

 breast tinged with bufFy-brown ; wings black, con- 

 spicuously patched with bright yellow and white ; tail 

 also black, the feathers tipped with white ; bill 

 whitish, tipped black. Resident. 



Eggs. — 4—5, bluish-white, spotted sparing!}'- with 

 pale purplish-brown, and having a few dark-brown 

 spots and short streaks at the larger end ; '66 ^ '5 

 inch (plate 135). 



Nest. — Very compact, like that of the Chaffinch, 

 and composed of moss, grass, and wool, lined with 

 seed-down, hair, and feathers, and placed usually in 

 orchard trees, but sometimes in hedges. 



