THE JAY 



of these, where its handsome plumage would prove an 

 additional charm. The Jay is the most arboreal of the 

 British Crows, and delights in woods and plantations where 

 there is plenty of undergrowth. A good belt of thicket is 

 absolutely essential to its needs. It is a most shy and 

 seclusion-loving species, a brief glimpse of its parti- 

 coloured plumage or its harsh scream of rark as it hurries 

 off amongst the green branches usually being all that is 

 seen or heard of it. It is the least social of the Crows, 

 seldom more than a pair being seen in company, save in 

 summer, when the broods and their parents keep together 

 for some little time after the former have left the nest. 

 It obtains most of its food upon the ground, although it 

 is seldow seen there. This chiefly consists of worms, 

 grubs, insects, fruit, grain, peas, acorns > beech-mast and 

 even small birds, chicks, and carrion. The bird is partial 

 to eggs, and robs many nests. A poisoned egg is one of 

 the most fatal lures for this species. The flight of the 

 Jay is singularly drooping, the wing-beats rapid, and 

 sometimes the bird descends very rapidly from a great 

 height almost perpendicularly like a plummet into the 

 cover below. Its note is an oft-repeated rark rark, and 

 is heard most frequently in early spring and towards 

 evening, but during the breeding season the bird is 

 remarkably silent. It probably pairs for life, and its eggs 

 are laid in April and May. The nest, placed at no great 

 height from the ground in a tall evergreen or other bush, 

 or in some sapling amongst the dense underwood, is a 

 cup-shaped structure formed externally of twigs and a 

 little mud, and copiously lined with roots. The five to 

 seven eggs vary from greyish green to bluish green, mottled 

 and freckled all over with olive-brown, and in some cases 

 sparingly scratched with dark brown. The young are 

 fed and tended for some time after leaving the nest, and 

 the woodlands can offer few prettier sights than a troop 

 of these restless birds. 



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