160 BRITISH BIRDS 



a stray sunbeam falls through the foliage on him, lighting up his 

 line reddish brown plumage, variegated with black and white and 

 beautiful blue, he shows as one of the handsomest birds that 

 inhabit the woodlands. 



The jay makes his nest in a bush or sapling at no great height 

 from the ground ; the lower branch of a large tree is sometimes 

 made choice of, where the nest is well concealed by the close 

 foliage ; a thick holly or other evergreen is also a favourite site. 

 The nest is built of sticks and twigs, sometimes mixed with mud, 

 and the cup- shaped cavity is lined with fine roots. Four to seven 

 eggs are laid, pale greyish green in ground-colour, thickly freckled, 

 and spotted all over with pale olive-brown. The young birds follow 

 their parents for some weeks after leaving the nest. 



The jay is omnivorous, but in summer feeds mainly on slugs, 

 worms, grubs, and insects of all kinds ; in this season he devours 

 berries and fruit plums, cherries, also peas and currants ; and in 

 autumn, nuts, beech-mast, and acorns. He also plunders the 

 smaller birds of their eggs and young, and is said to carry off 

 pheasant and partridge chicks. He is a keen mouser, and after 

 killing a mouse with two or three sharp blows on the head, strips 

 the skin off before devouring it. Like the nuthatch and some other 

 species, he has the habit of concealing the food he does not want to 

 eat at once. 



Magpie. 

 Pica rustica. 



Head, throat, neck, and back velvet-black ; scapulars and under 

 plumage white ; tail much graduated, and, as v/ell as the wings, 

 black, with lustrous blue and green reflections ; beak and feet black. 

 Length, eighteen inches. 



In spite of his evil reputation, the magpie is regarded by most 

 persons who are not breeders of pheasants with exceptional interest, 

 and even affection. He has some very attractive qualities, and is 

 one of that trio of corvine birds pie, chough, and jay from which 

 it is difficult to single out the most beautiful. The most conspicuous 

 he undoubtedly is, in his black and white plumage ; and his figure, 

 with its long, graduated tail, is also the most elegant. In his 

 habits there is abundant variety, and in sagacity he is probably un- 

 surpassed by any member of the corvine family, which counts so 

 many wily brains. His excessive cunning and rapid rate of i 



