MAGPIE AND JAY 59 



the place of their birth, and wander, sometimes forming small 



bands. 



Flocks of jays are certainly observed during the winter months, 

 and in some years more frequently than in others, which suggests that 

 some of them may be formed of immigrant birds. That they are also 

 seen in pairs or singly is of course a well-known fact On a common 

 with which I am familiar, the jays are either singly or in pairs after 

 about October. Of the roosting habits of this species, little or nothing 

 appeal's to be ascertained. 



Magpies are frequently observed in flocks during the winter, and 

 in parts where they are not persecuted these may number from thirty 

 to forty individuals. Single pairs are also seen, both in the British 

 Isles and abroad. They may be accounted for, perhaps, by local 

 scarcity of birds due to persecution. Magpies certainly roost in 

 flocks, often in company with other species. According to a writer 

 in the Field, several hundreds were on one occasion found by him 

 roosting near Morlaix in Brittany. He and his gallant companions 

 manifested their interest in the discovery by leaping out of their traps 

 and firing at least fifty shots into the roost, killing sometimes two or 

 three magpies at a shot, the slaughter being rendered easy by the fact 

 that, for all the noise, the birds did not quit the wood. One ventures 

 to hope that no Bretons witnessed this brutal exhibition. 1 



In the winter, both jays and magpies are in the habit of hoarding 

 provisions, which is what one would naturally expect, not only from 

 them, but from all the Corvidae, having regard to the fondness they 

 have been observed to display, when in captivity, for hoarding all sorts 

 of objects, including food. Montagu denied that jays hoard, but the 

 evidence, so far as it goes, is against him. They have been observed 

 hiding grain, acorns, and the like, carrying them either in the gullet or 

 the distensible pouch under the tongue, and regurgitating them into 

 any chink or cavity, or into holes made with the beak in the ground. 

 They will make several such holes, burying one or more objects in 



1 Field, 1900, xcv. 579. 



