314 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



the daw mentally of all our crows, and as he 

 excels most of our wild birds in beauty he would 

 naturally have been a first favourite as a pet but 

 for the fact that it is only in a state of nature 

 in which he is like the daw — lively, clever, impish ; 

 in captivity he is more like the magpie and affili- 

 ates even less than that bird with his human 

 associates. In confinement he is a quiet, almost 

 sedate, certainly a silent bird. He is essentially 

 a woodland species; all his graces, his various, 

 often musical, language, with many imitations of 

 bird and animal sounds, and his spectacular 

 games and pretty wing displays, are for his own 

 people exclusively. He must have his liberty in 

 the woods and a company of his fellow-jays to 

 exhibit his full lustre. 



The difference between jay and daw is similar 

 to that between fox and dog; or rather let us say, 

 between one of the small desert foxes of Syria 

 and Egypt — the fennec, for instance — and the 

 jackal, the domestic dog's progenitor; the first 

 gifted with exquisite grace and beauty, was too 

 highly specialized to suit the domestic condition; 

 hence the generalized un-beautiful beast was 

 chosen to be man's servant and companion. In 



