GARRULOUS GLENDARIUS. 487 



gamekeeper does, frankly admitting that " where ignorance is 

 bliss 'tis folly to be wise." But though it occasionally sucks the 

 eggs and kills the young of other birds, eats cherries and peas 

 in gardens, its chief food is insects, larvse, worms, acorns, beech- 

 mast, nuts, grain, and fruits — not so omnivorous as the magpie 

 — more confined to insects, larvae, fruits, and pulse ; is more 

 arboreal in habits, more confined (like the bullfinch) to the dense 

 thickets of large woods, where its nest is generally found ; also 

 in high coppice wood or hedges, and in the bough of a low 

 scrubby tree — never on the tops of trees, like crow's or magpie's. 

 It is composed of sticks, and lined with fine roots, like the 

 magpie's, but not roofed ; eggs, five or six — grey-blue, freckled 

 over with darker brown, sometimes a ring at the larger 

 end — easily known from any other bird's — 1J by J i£- It is a 

 restless, shy bird, and in the breeding season hides in the 

 thickest parts of the wood, hence seldom seen. It flits like a 

 shadow through the woods, warily keeping out of gunshot ; has 

 the opposite tendency of the magpie, rarely approaching the 

 dwellings of man, unless in search of food for its young — a time 

 when all creatures dare most to prolong their kind. In 1888 a 

 nest with five eggs was got at St Fort, near where the heronry 

 is, or rather was, for many of the high trees were blown down 

 in 1893, when so much destruction was done to trees in 

 Scotland. It was at the south-east end, not far from the 

 railway station, that a singular contest between a pair of jays and 

 a pair of partridges took place, the object being the partridges' 

 eggs, near hatched — a time when both species would exert their 

 utmost — the jays for food to their young, the partridges in 

 defence of theirs ; but in spite of the desperate defence, the 

 partridges were overcome, and their nest and eggs destroyed. 

 Besides its harsh notes, it emits a low twitter in spring. 

 Montagu says that like the American mocking-bird it can 

 imitate the bleating of a lamb, the mewing of a cat, the note of 

 a kite or buzzard, hooting of an owl, and the neighing of a horse 

 so exactly that he was often deceived. It glides through the 

 trees with great ease ; in the open it flies direct like the magpie, 

 with quick beats of its moderate-sized wings. The young 

 remain with the old birds till next spring, like the magpies. 

 The general colour is light red. There is a black moustachial 

 band on each side of its mouth ; on the forehead and crown the 

 feathers are elongated and narrow, streaked with black, and 

 form a crest, which it can erect or depress like a cockatoo ; 

 hind part of the head, back, and scapulars — light purple red ; 



