102 THE BIRDS OF OUR RAMBLES. 



are white, and the crest is streaked with black, 

 the latter being the colour of the moustachial 

 lines. The tail is brownish black, the wings 

 black, chestnut, and white, the coverts being 

 beautifully barred with black, white, and blue 

 alternately. Persecuted for his real or imaginary 

 depredations amongst the game, the Jay is fast 

 becoming a rare bird in many districts. We 

 cannot wander far through a wood inhabited by 

 Jays without soon becoming aware of the fact. 

 Nine times out of ten they will be heard long 

 before they are seen, and in many cases, especially 

 where the underwood is dense, they manage to 

 elude every effort to observe them. The scream 

 of the Jay is very characteristic a loud, harsh 

 rark-rark or raa-raa-rark. I know of several 

 beautiful Kentish woods that are the paradise of 

 the Jay places where the keeper never molests 

 it, for the coverts are given up to the foxes, and 

 game is of only minor importance. The Jay 

 loves a wood where the undergrowth is dense 

 woods where the ground is bare offer no attrac- 

 tion. No underwood is more dense or secluded 

 than that which is composed of sapling Spanish 

 chestnuts, which in many parts of Kent are grown 

 for hop-poles. Among this cover the Jay is 

 in his glory, and from June until the following 

 March troop after troop of noisy birds may be 

 constantly heard. They tell the whereabouts of 

 the foxes reynard cannot stir without his move- 

 ments being noted by the noisy Jays and even 

 when he takes his midday siesta amongst the 

 long grass on the side of the drives the birds 

 congregate in the trees above him, and scold and 

 storm so long as he remains. The Jay is com- 



