_ 90 BRITISH BIRDS, THEIR EGGS AND NESTS. 
wild Magpie is. A very bold, impudent, thievish rascal the 
domesticated Mag as certainly proves himself. Shy and wary as 
these birds are in a state of nature, no bird whatever seems to affect 
concealment Jess in the fashion and structure and position of its 
nest. Placed high up among the smaller branches of a tallish 
tree, or perhaps in the upper part of a strong, thick, high bush in 
a hedge or standing lonely in a field or park, nothing can well be 
more conspicuous than the massy Magpie’s nest, with its large 
though light dome of thorny sticks and twigs. I used to be 
assured as a schoolboy that there were two sorts or varieties of 
Magpies, distinguished by the comparative length of their tails 
and the site of their nests :—the alleged short-tailed one was called 
the Bush Magpie; the other the Tree Magpie. It is almost idle 
to say no such variety or distinction really exists. The materials 
of the nest are chiefly sticks, plastered with earth inside, and lined 
with roots and hair. There are often as many as six or seven 
eggs laid in it, pale bluish-white in colour, spotted all over, and 
abundantly so in general, with grey and greenish brown of more 
than one shade.—Fig. 8, plate V. 
123. JAY—(Garrulus glandarius). 
Jay-pie, Jay-piet—The Jay’s peculiar screeching note is 
perhaps more familiar to many ears than the bird itself to the 
eyes corresponding to the said ears. It is a shy bird, seldom 
seen far from its haunts in woods and copses, though when seen, 
it is noticeable enough from a certain peculiarity in its flight, due 
toa sort of fluttering use or motion of its wings. It is easily 
domesticated, and becomes a tame and amusing pet. The nest is 
very often extremely rude and inartificial, almost as much so as the 
Ring Dove’s. It is placed in the upper part of a lofty bush ina 
wood, or on some one of the lateral branches of a tree where the 
height from the ground is considerable; is made of sticks and 
