240 Wild Life in Wales 



would have thought, from the depredations of anything but 

 a starving Sparrow-Hawk. The screaming raised by it, its 

 parents, and companions, and which attracted me to the 

 scene, was something appalling, and enough to have scared 

 away all but a most determined robber ; but by the time I 

 reached the spot, the hawk was already engaged in plucking 

 its lifeless victim, in total disregard of the angry relatives, 

 and only resigned it to me after an ineffectual attempt to 

 carry it off. 



A few small wandering bands of Jays were always to be 

 met with round Llanuwchllyn, in autumn, gathering hazel 

 nuts from the coppice, and beech mast and acorns from the 

 woods. The latter it has been said to swallow whole ; but 

 more commonly, they, like the other fruits above mentioned, 

 are first shelled, and then broken up, and disposed of in 

 fragments, being held in the foot for the purpose, and 

 hammered with the bill. Jays seem always to prefer 

 plucking such food from the tree, to seeking it on the 

 ground beneath. The stomach of one killed on 6th 

 December was filled with chips of acorns, amongst which 

 were some small intestinal worms, round, about half an inch 

 in length, and dull white in colour. Apples it is also 

 partial to, as well as many other kinds of garden produce. 

 Although, when moving to a distance upon the ground, the 

 advance is made by a series of big hops, the Jay walks at 

 other times, like the rest of its kith, as I have frequently 

 had opportunities of observing. Where not molested, it is 

 quick to throw off the shyness which has been forced upon 

 it, and will resort, with other birds, to feed upon scraps 

 thrown out upon the lawn. A most charming sight I 

 enjoyed a year ago, in the garden of a friend in the west 

 country, was in seeing a Jay, and two Magpies, together with 

 a crowd of Starlings, Thrushes, and Blackbirds, feeding at 

 a dish put out for them within a few feet of the windows, 

 during a slight snowfall. 



Although very destructive to the nests of small birds, a 

 Jay is comparatively harmless to the eggs of game, its chief 

 cause of offence to the game preserver often consisting in 

 its persistent pilfering of maize from the pheasant feeds. 



