1 20 BRITISH BIRDS 



Then, again, to cut the tongue actually decreases, instead 

 of increasing, the bird's vocal powers, and the person 

 who cuts it in order to make it talk more freely, positively 

 lessens, if he does not entirely put a stop to, the chance 

 that the bird will ever learn to speak at all. Fortunately, 

 as we have said, the senseless and most cruel practice 

 is dying out, and we hope ere long that it will be utterly 

 forgotten, or only mentioned with a sense of shame and 

 shrinking equal to that with which we hear of the old 

 custom of roasting living Geese in order to improve 

 the flavour, or of pounding Swallows alive in a mortar 

 for the sake of imparting some mysterious vital property 

 to the oil that was obtained from the birds. 



THE JACK SNIPE. See Snipe (Common). 



THE JAY. 



If anything, this bird is handsomer than the Magpie; 

 his long silky feathers, crest, sub-ruddy breast and blue 

 wing-patches giving him an air of aristocratic charm that 

 is very attractive ; but, even more than the Magpie, he has 

 incurred the displeasure of the "sportsman," and is yearly 

 becoming of rarer and rarer occurrence in our woods and 

 copses, which not long since he adorned by his presence; 

 and the reason is, he disturbs the game by his vociferations 

 and gives them a chance to escape the gun of their 

 would-be destroyer, for the Jay is the sentinel of the woods, 

 and no marauding foe, be it weasel, fox, or "shooter," 

 can escape his vigilance or the expression of his hate. 



The female Jay is known by the grey colour of the 

 upper part of the neck, which is vinous red in the male ; 

 she also has a less conspicuous crest than he has, and is, 

 perhaps, a trifle smaller : she is also a poor hand at 

 talking, but will become as tame and tricky as her mate. 



The Jay is popularly credited with subsisting wholly, or 

 in part, on acorns, and it may be that in time of dearth 

 he will satisfy his hunger on the "fruit" beloved of pigs 



