354 



at 



that are wild, but also on birds, fish, tortoises, 

 turtles' eggs. &c. It must, however, be very 

 hard pressed before it will attack man. 



JANTHINA. A Molluscous animal, be- 

 longing to the Pcctinibranchiata. The shell 

 has some resemblance to our land snails, 

 but the aperture is angular at its lower part 

 and at its outer side, where, however, the 

 angle formed by the union of the upper and 

 lower halves of the outer lip is much rounded 

 in most of the species ; the columella straight 



and elongated, the inner lip turned back 

 over it. The animal has no operctilum, but 

 carries under its foot a vesicular organ, like 

 a congeries of foam-bubbles, of solid con- 

 sistence, that prevents creeping, but serves 

 as a buoy to support it at the surface of the 

 water. The head is a cylindrical proboscis ; 

 and is terminated with a mouth cleft ver- 

 tically, and armed with little curved spines : 

 on each side of it is a forked tentaculum. 

 The shells are of a violet colour ; and when 

 the animal is irritated it pours forth an 

 excretion of deeper blue to tinge the sea 

 around it. 



" The method in which this animal fills 

 its float," says Capt. Grey, " is curious : it 

 throws it back, and gradually lifts the lip of 

 the valve out of water, until the valve stands 

 vertical ; it then closes the valve tightly 

 round a globule of air, around which it 

 folds, by means of the most complex and 

 delicate machinery. The valve is then bent 

 over until it touches the edge of the float 

 nearest the head, and when it is in this po- 

 sition, the portion of it which is inflated 

 with air looks like a bladder, the air gra- 

 dually is expelled into the float, and as this 

 process takes place the bladder in the valve 

 diminishes, and the valve becomes by de- 

 grees like a lip pushed forwards until it lies 

 flat on the float : the valve is composed of 

 two portions, a cup and a lip. The time 

 occupied from first removing the valve from 

 the float, until the inflation, and the expul- 

 sion of air into the float being completed, 

 so that the valve begins to move again, is 

 sixty-one seconds, from the mean of several 

 experiments. These animals have also the 

 power of compressing the valve into a hol- 

 low tube, which they elevate above the 

 water like a funnel, and draw down air 

 through it. The colouring matter which 

 they emit has no stinging, electric, or dele- 

 terious properties whatever, that I could 

 discover. I found that when this colouring 

 matter was mixed with water, it became of 

 a deep blue. In those which I caught in 

 NOT. 1837, I may have been deceived, and 



the colouring matter might also possibly 

 have been scarlet directly it was emitted. 

 It is difficult to conceive what use this liquid 

 can be to the fish against its foes, yet it 

 certainly uses it as a means of defence. To 

 one of these shells, the fish in which was 

 alive and well, we found attached a number 

 of barnacles, some of which were of large 

 size." Narrative of Expedition in South 

 Australia. 



JAY. (Garrulusglandarius.) The Jay is 

 the most elegant bird of the Corvine genus 

 in Britain, and is about thirteen inches in 

 length. Its general colour is a light purplish 

 buif, paler on the under parts ; the wings 

 black, with a large white spot in the middle: 

 its bill and tail are black ; the former 

 notched on each side near the tip, and the 

 latter rather rounded at the end : the fea- 

 thers on the forehead are white, streaked 

 with black, and form a tuft which it can 

 erect or depress at pleasure : the greater 

 wing-coverts are elegantly barred with 

 black, fine pale blue, and white alternately ; 

 the lesser wing-coverts bay ; the belly and 



IS GljANDARIUS.} 



vent almost white : the greater quills are 

 black, with light edges ; the bases of some 

 of them white ; lesser quills black ; those 

 next the body chestnut : legs of a dirty flesh 

 colour. The Jay is very common in this 

 country, and is found in most of the tem- 

 perate parts of Europe, frequenting woods, 

 and feeding on acorns, beech-mast, berries, 

 and fruits of Yarious kinds, insects, and 

 sometimes young birds in the absence of 

 the old ones. The Jays are distinguished as 

 well for the beautiful "arrangement of their 

 colours, as for their harsh, grating voice, and 

 petulant, restless disposition. In confine- 

 ment, however, it loses the beauty of its plu- 

 mage, and becomes of a dull or brownish 

 tinge. When an owl or other bird of prey 

 appears in the woods, they utter piercing 

 cries, and assemble in great numbers to at- 

 tack the common enemy : the same thing 

 takes place when they see a sportsman, whom 

 they often frustrate by their vociferous 

 noise. Like their kindred, the magpie and 

 jackdaw, they can be taught a variety of 

 words and sounds, particularly those of a 

 harsh and grating character, as that of a 

 saw, &c. They sometimes assemble in great 

 numbers in the spring, and seem to hold a 

 conference, (as Bewick says) probably for 



