THROUGH THE WOODS. 103 



paratively a harmless bird. He may steal a few 

 eggs in the spring, but his food consists of worms 

 and grubs, of acorns, peas, and cherries, and even, 

 when hard pressed by severity of weather, of any 

 garbage he may chance to find. The Jay breeds 

 rather late, and makes a new nest every year, 

 choosing a site among the brushwood, often in a 

 holly, or in a mass of woodbine. This nest is 

 very similar to that of the Magpie, only the roof 

 of sticks is absent, and the materials are not quite 

 so coarse. The eggs, laid early in May, are from 

 five to seven in number, bluish green densely 

 marbled and mottled with olive-brown, and oc- 

 casionally streaked with darker brown. The 

 young and their parents wander about in com- 

 pany as soon as the former are able to leave the 

 nest. 



In times within the memory of living men the 

 Raven was a regular dweller in the woods, but 

 gamekeepers and cultivation have at last proved 

 too much for him, and these places know him no 

 more. The rock- bound coasts are now his great 

 refuge, and there we may meet with him anon 

 (see p. 210). His representative in the woods 

 to-day is the CARRION CROW (Corvus cor one], as 

 cunning and crafty a bird as ever wore feathers. 

 Nowhere in English woods can this bird be con- 

 sidered common ; and there can be little doubt 

 that it is fast following the Raven to utter banish- 

 ment. It may readily be distinguished from the 

 Rook by its green instead of purple-shot plumage, 

 by having the face covered with feathers, and by 

 its harsher caw, which sounds more like craw, 

 occasionally modified into car-ruck. The Carrion 

 Crow is rather a late breeder, and its nest and 



