96 The Naturalist in Siluria. 



death to the others. Cannibal- like, more than once have 

 I seen them gorging themselves on the flesh of fieldfares 

 that had fallen victims to the snow, seeming to hold revel 

 over the unnatural banquet. 



"GARBULUS GLAND ARIUS " A MISNOMER. 



It seems to me that the ornithological name bestowed 

 upon this bird is a misnomer, both generically and specifi- 

 cally. Many other birds are as noisy chatterers, some 

 even more so, the magpie, for instance, and parrots in 

 their wild state, while it is not specially a feeder upon 

 acorns. Neither does it seem correctly classed in the 

 family Corvidce, in which most ornithologists place it; 

 for, though the smallest member of this family inhabiting 

 England, it is, in reality, more rapacious than any of 

 them, the raven not excepted. Besides, if anatomical 

 structure be reliable as a guide to habits, the denticulated 

 upper mandible of the Jay's beak, with its sharp curving 

 claws, points to relationship with the Falconidce quite as 

 much as with the Corvidce. But there is another family 

 with which it seems to have a still closer kinship the 

 shrikes (Laniadce). There is a striking resemblance 

 between it and the great grey shrike, or butcher-bird 

 (Lanius excubitor), not only in the dentition, but in many 

 of their ways and habits, both being murderous birds. 

 For I have reason to know that during the winters of 

 1879-80 and 1880-81 the Jays did not always await their 

 weak bird brethren succumbing to death from starvation, 

 but in many cases forestalled it by killing them. 



