574 



BRITISH BIRDS. 



article we learn that great numbers of Jays passed Heligoland in the 

 autumn of 1876. In the words of Gaetke, " Thousands passing the island ; 

 some landed, caught ; coming, never ending/' Since that date the bird 

 does not appear to have been observed at Heligoland until last autumn, 

 when immense numbers occurred again, Gaetke stating that " a perfect 

 storm of Jays has passed over and on both sides of the island, during the 

 last three days. No one living has ever seen the like here." In Norfolk, 

 Stevenson remarks that at times the resident Jays are sometimes largely 

 increased in numbers in autumn ; and this naturalist gives an instance, 

 coming under Messrs. Shepphard and Whitear's observation, of an 

 enormous flight of these birds that appeared in that county. As to the 

 cause of this singular movement on the part of the Jay we are at present 

 in the dark ; but it may possibly be a similar one to that which influenced 

 the extraordinary migration, or rather emigration, of the Sand- Grouse 

 that is, a superfluous population in search of a home. 



The Jay has the head covered with a long crest, whitish buff in 

 colour, each smaller feather tipped with black, which in the more 

 elongated ones becomes a median stripe ; and in the hinder feathers these 

 stripes merge into vinaceous brown freckled and barred with a darker 

 shade. The nape, scapulars, and back are vinous brown ; the rump and 

 upper tail-coverts pure white ; the tail black, indistinctly barred on the 

 basal half with blue ; the primaries are dull black, margined with white ; 

 the secondaries are glossy black, each with an elongated white patch on 

 the basal half of the outer web; the innermost secondary is chestnut, 

 obliquely tipped with black ; the wing-coverts are black on the inner web, 

 but barred alternately on the outer web with black, white, and blue. On 

 each side of the gape is a broad moustachial patch of black ; the chin and 

 throat are dull white ; the breast and belly are pale vinous, darkest on the 

 flanks; and the vent and under tail-coverts are white. Bill blackish 

 horn-colour ; legs, feet, and claws brown ; irides pale blue. The female 

 resembles the male in colour ; and the young birds, even in their nestling 

 or first plumage, do not strikingly differ from their parents. 





