COMMON JAY. 571 



are favourite places of this bird ; and in these situations if you do not 

 meet with it, you have but to thank the cruel gamekeeper and observe 

 the bird's gaudy plumes swaying to and fro in the wind as it hangs nailed 

 in the keeper's " museum," in company with a whole army of weasels, 

 Magpies, and a few Sparrow-Hawks and Kestrels, once ornaments of the 

 solitudes around you. The Jay is also found in the large shrubberies 

 near houses, especially if a thick growth of underwood is there, whence 

 at nightfall you may often hear its discordant scream as it searches out a 

 roosting-place. It is a very shy and timid bird and nine times out of ten 

 its note is the only sign of its presence, or mayhap you will catch a hasty 

 glimpse of its varied plumage as it flits noisily away into the deepest parts 

 of the cover. 



Sometimes, especially in spring, fortune may favour you, and you will 

 see a regular gathering of these noisy birds. It is their pairing-time; and 

 by exerting the utmost caution you may approach them sufficiently close 

 to hear their warbling notes, confined to this season. It is only at this 

 time that the Jay displays a social disposition; and the birds may 

 often be heard to utter a great variety of notes, some of the modulations 

 approaching almost to a song. But their wariness is none the less; and 

 if you unwittingly tread upon some dead twig, or cause a branch to rustle, 

 the whole troop, greatly alarmed at your intrusion, scurry off, and their 

 harsh screams, now faint and indistinct in the distance, are the only signs 

 of their presence. The usual note of the Jay is a harsh discordant 

 scream, a hoarse rake, rake, or sometimes a clever imitation of some of the 

 notes of the other birds of the forest. Respecting this presumed imitative 

 power of the Jay numerous observations have been made by careful 

 naturalists. Montagu states that he has heard the bird imitate the 

 mewing of a cat, the hooting of an Owl, or the neighing of a horse ; 

 Bewick has heard it copy to a nicety the sound made by a saw; whilst 

 other observers have heard it utter correct imitations of the notes of 

 various singing-birds. In confinement (where the bird is often seen) 

 these powers are even more fully displayed ; and consequently the bird is 

 a great favourite. The Jay becomes noisiest in the evening; and its 

 discordant notes may then be heard together with those of the Pheasant 

 and the Magpie. Numbers of the birds call together, or answer each 

 other from different parts of the cover, and, with the note of the Wood- 

 Owl and the purr of the Nightjar, make a concert sounding singularly 

 uncanny amidst the gloom of the forest. The flight of the Jay is a some- 

 what laboured one, performed very irregularly and with rapid beatings of 

 the wings. The Jay's peculiar flight is seen to the greatest perfection 

 when the bfrd is flying in the open ; for in the thick cover they appear to 

 scurry off amongst the branches, anxious to conceal themselves as soon as 

 possible. In spring the Jay may sometimes be observed to fly at a con- 



