50 The Food of Some British Wild Birds. 



JAY. 



Garrulus glandarius, Linn. 



This handsome bird in most districts is becoming rarer and 

 rarer, owing to the persecution of the gamekeeper. 



Archibald (6) states that they consume large quantities of 

 pheasant food, and also that they take the eggs of game and strip 

 the pods of peas. 



Smith (105) states: " In the neighbourhood of game preserves 

 the jay sometimes does much damage to the apple crops by taking a 

 bite out of any rosy-faced apple that looEs tempting, spoiling very 

 many, without consuming any great quantity. He is also a great 

 nut-cracker, taking the point of the nut off as you would with a 

 knife, inserting his beak, and opening the nut. He is very fond of 

 green peas, and plums do not come amiss to him. Where fruit is 

 grown he should be kept down." 



Hooper (68) remarks that "when a fruit plantation is near a 

 wood, the jay is apt to peck and disfigure apples ; it takes nuts, 

 is fond of green peas and plums, and is said to feed on ripe cherries. 

 It eats the eggs of the blackbird and wood pigeon, and is useful in 

 this way. Its food consists of acorns, beech-nuts, worms, snails, 

 slugs, cockchafers, beetles, insect larvae, mice, eggs and young 

 birds." 



Newstead (92) examined twenty-three specimens, the stomach 

 contents of which he summarises as follows : " 10 contained insects 

 of the injurious group; 4, beneficial group; 4, indifferent group; 

 5, wheat and oats ; 9, acorns ; 2, potato ; 2, shells of birds' eggs ; 

 1, miscellaneous; 1, grass; 2, bones of mammal." 



Of eighteen specimens examined, the stomach contents are 

 scheduled below. 



Post-mortem Records. 



