176 NATURE NEAR LONDON. 



BackfuUs, to be eaten as salad. These things have 

 fallen so much into disuse in the country that country 

 people are surprised to find the herbalists flourishing 

 round the great city of progress. 



The continued dry weather in the early summer of 

 the present year, which was so favourable to partridges 

 and game, was equally favourable to the increase of 

 several other kinds of birds, and among these the 

 jays. Their screeching is often heard in this district, 

 quite as often as it is in country woodlands. One 

 day in the spring I saw six all screeching and yelling 

 together up and down a hedge near the road. Now 

 in October they are plentiful. One flew across over- 

 head with an acorn in its beak, and perched in an 

 elm beside the highway. He pecked at the acorn 

 on the bough, then glanced down, saw me, and fled, 

 dropping the acorn, which fell tap-tap from branch 

 to branch till it reached the mound. 



Another jay actually flew up into a fir in the 

 green, or lawn, before a farm-house window, crossing 

 the road to do so. Four together were screeching 

 in an elm close to the road, and since then I have 

 seen others with acorns, while walking there. Indeed, 

 this autumn it is not possible to go far without 

 hearing their discordant and unmistakable cry. 

 They were never scarce here, but are unusually 

 numerous this season, and in the scattered trees of 

 hedgerows their ways can be better observed than 

 in the close covert of copses and plantations, where 

 you hear them, but cannot see for the thick fir 

 boughs. 



It is curious to note the number of creatures to 



