JAY 



Garrulus glandarius 



N most of the wooded parts of England the Jay is still a 

 common bird, and seems even to be on the increase in some 

 districts in spite of the war waged against it by keepers 

 and game-preservers in general. In Scotland it has become 

 much rarer of late years and is now only found in a few 

 districts, and it is only in Perthshire and the surrounding 

 counties that it can be called at all a common bird. In 

 Ireland it is chiefly confined to one or two counties in the south, where it 

 is very locally distributed. 



Like many of our bright-plumaged birds, the Jay is a bird of the woods, 

 where it can find seclusion in the thick tangles of oak and birch and where 

 there is plenty of undergrowth. Its favourite haunts are woods where there are 

 large clumps of hollies and other evergreens, and it often takes up its quarters 

 in some large shrubbery close to a house. It is a very shy, timid bird, and 

 it is more often heard than seen, though now and then one may catch a 

 glimpse of its bright plumage as it flies to some thick tree uttering its harsh, 

 discordant scream. 



During the pairing season in early spring the Jay becomes more social in 

 its disposition, and numbers of these birds will gather together in some quiet 

 part of the woods. At this time the Jay utters a great variety of notes, some 

 of them quite musical ; but its ordinary cry is a hoarse, discordant scream, 

 ' rake, rake, rake.' The Jay becomes noisiest during the evening, and it may 

 often be heard to utter notes imitating the hoot of an owl or the mew 

 of a cat 



In the early part of the year the food of the Jay consists of worms, grubs, 

 etc., which it searches for among the grass and under the shelter of hedges 

 and bushes. On the ground the Jay does not walk like the true crows, but 



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