150 



C O R V U S. 



account of their habits, be thence inferred that this 

 store is their own. In confinement they do conceal 

 their surplus provisions, but they at the same time 

 pilfer and hide substances which can be of no use to 

 them as food ; so that no certain conclusion can 

 thence- be drawn of what they may do in a state of 

 nature ; and magpies and jackdaws both hoard and 

 steal when in a domesticated state, and yet we do not 

 hear of their stores of provisions being met with when 

 they are in the wild state. In winter, too, at least in 

 the colder parts of the country, jays are understood 

 to be, for the greater part of their time, in holes of 

 trees, or other places of concealment, in a state 

 nearly dormant. It is not supposed that they actually 

 hybernate, but they are rarely seen at that season 

 when there are no leaves on the trees to conceal 

 them ; and when they do make their appearance in 

 winter, it is only on very mild days. 



When any danger appears, the jays set up a 

 screaming, and as their chattering is loud, and they 

 all take up the note, they alarm the whole tenants of 

 the wood, and thus, by acting the part of sentinels, 

 make some sort of return to other birds for the 

 depredations which they commit on their nests. On 

 some parts of the continent they are partially migrant, 

 and where this is the case they partially flock, though 

 their flocks can hardly be called societies. In Britain 

 they are more stationary, generally remaining in the 

 same places, and rearing two broods in the course of 

 the season. They choose the most close and con- 

 cealed parts of the trees for their nests ; and, both 

 for general habitation and nesting, they prefer young 

 woods, in which the trees are branched down nearly 

 to the ground, to those which have tall and clean 

 boles. Rooks and jays may be found in the same 

 forest, but not in the same part of it. The nest is 

 not so elaborate a structure as that of the magpie. 

 It is broad, and rather firm, as well as carefully 

 concealed ; but it has no dome, and is shallow, and 

 without any very soft matters in the lining. The 

 etrgs vary from four to seven, are smaller than those 

 of the pigeon, of a greenish-grey colour, with olive 

 spots. The time of the incubation is understood to 

 last about two weeks. 



When the jay has grown to maturity in the wild 

 state, it is very shy as well as cunning, and can hardly 

 be reconciled to confinement by any means ; but 

 when it is taken voung, it is very easily tamed, and 

 very docile, though even then it appears at times to 

 be very impatient of the confinement of the cage, 

 against which it breaks its feathers, and often does 

 itself more serious injury. But it articulates readily, 

 can be taught a number of tricks, and therefore, in 

 many parts of the world it is kept with much attention. 

 Its voice is flexible, and it is capable not only of 

 articulating words, but of imitating the voices both of 

 other birds and of several of the mammalia. For food 

 it is of little value, as it is both tough and of bad 

 flavour ; but on some parts of the continent it is 

 eaten, after having undergone the double culinary 

 process of being first boiled and then roasted. Even 

 if it were good, the labour of obtaining it in Britain 

 would be far more than its value ; but on the 

 continent it is more easily obtained ; and though it is 

 not in request for the table under its own name, it is 

 said to be sometimes double-cooked, as above-men- 

 tioned, and then introduced as a thrush. 



Corvus graculus ( Chough). This species, which is 

 the Cornish crow, the red-legged crow, and 



various other names, is an inhabitant of peculiar 

 localities, but these localities are situated in many 

 latitudes, and they are sometimes on the sea-coast, and 

 sometimes inland. In all places, however, it appears 

 to be a rock-bird, though not an inhabitant of all 

 rocks indiscriminately, or even of all rocks which ap- 

 pear to be in themselves of nearly the same character. 



In Britain the chough is found only on, or very 

 near, the coast, and on those coasts only which are 

 washed by the Atlantic and the Channel, and not 

 upon these, if there are not rocks or lofty ruins to 

 serve it for nesting-places. Dover and Cornwall, 

 some parts of Wales, and a few spots on the west 

 coast of Scotland and the Hebrides, are the British 

 localities of the chough. It occurs as far to the north 

 as Norway, and in the rocky mountains of central 

 and southern Europe, in the Alps, the Pyrenees, &c. 

 It is also found, at least at some seasons of the year, 

 in places where there are few or no rocks, being par- 

 ticularly abundant along the banks of the Nile in 

 Egypt, when the inundations begin to subside, and 

 the supply of reptile food becomes abundant ; but it 

 does not breed on the banks of that river. 



The chough is black, with a tinge of violet ; and 

 the bill and legs are red. The irides are hazel. 

 The bill is differently shaped from that of any of the 

 previously mentioned species of the genus, being 

 longer in proportion, more slender, and bent for 

 nearly the whole length, though only slightly. It is 

 also much weaker, being brittle, and therefore not 

 adapted for the hard labour to which the bills of 

 some of the others are subjected. Of course it is 

 used for different purposes, and the form and texture 

 of the bill, together with the character of the haunts 

 in which it is chiefly found, may help to guide us to 

 the particular nature of its food, and consequently to 

 the part which it performs in the economy of nature. 

 The character of the feet is also of some importance ; 

 they are very stout, or at least clean made for the 

 size of the bird, and the claws are crooked and sharp, 

 partaking a little of the prehensile character. 



Chough. 



Thus the bill of the enough is not adapted for 

 digging into the ground, or for pushing and breaking 

 hard substances, like the bills of most, others of the 

 genus, nor are its feet adapted lor scraping ; it must 

 therefore be a surface feeder, and its food animal or 

 soft vegetable matter, or both. There are many 

 small animals on the bank of the river which has 

 been inundated, for the mud in such places, if the 



