52 THE CROW FAMILY 



genus, and the rook has his full share of it. He also shares the 

 family weakness for stealing and hiding any object that interests him, 

 from a pin to a piece of meat. Among his virtues may be counted a 

 truly Britannic love for cold baths, and one captive bird has been 

 known to go regularly to a cabbage patch in order to upset on to his 

 hot back the dew collected in their leaves. Another revelled in snow- 

 baths, rolling his black person gleefully about in the white flakes, 

 and taking it up in his beak to toss it in all directions. A more 

 striking sight still was that observed by Petenyi : forty to sixty rooks 

 all bathing together in a snowfield ; a sight that many an ornithologist 

 would give much to see. 1 



MAGPIE AND JAY 

 [F. B. KIRKMAN] 



The raven and its immediate relatives, the crows, rook and daw, 

 though saved from the reproach of plainness by the metallic lustre of 

 their plumage, cannot be described as beautiful birds. But this title 

 may with justice be claimed both by the jay and the magpie, as a 

 glance at the coloured plates will show. 



Their beauty however avails them little. They have an un- 

 fortunate weakness for eggs and young birds, including those of the 

 pheasant and partridge, which bring them into fatal collision with 

 the gamekeeper. In almost any game-preserve their remains may 

 be found, with those of crows, stoats, and other offenders, nailed to 

 the keeper's gibbet. The jay has, moreover, often to pay the price 

 of its life for the bright blue feathers it bears on its wings, as they 

 are sought after by the angler to dress his hook. Both birds are 

 accused of ravages in the garden. The mischief they inflict has 

 indeed blinded us to the benefits they confer on the agriculturist 

 by destroying enormous quantities of small vermin and noxious 

 insects. Their services should at least preserve them from wholesale 

 and systematic slaughter. 



1 Ornithologische Fragmente. 



