THE CHOUGHS. 21 



Habits. The Jay is an extremely shy and wary bird, having 

 no doubt learnt caution from the state of danger in which it 

 constantly finds itself, not only on account of its depredations 

 in the covert, but because of the brilliant blue feathers in the 

 bird's .wing, which are much in request with fly-fishers. It 

 is more often seen than heard, and its harsh note is the only 

 indication of the bird's presence. Its name of glandarius, the 

 bird of the acorn, has been amply justified during the past 

 summer (1893), when we have noticed in many of the woods 

 in the midland and eastern counties a considerable number of 

 Jays gathered together to feed on the acorns which have been 

 so unusually abundant. Although in the spring the Jay 

 devours a large number of grubs, it is decidedly a mischievous 

 bird later on in the fruit season, and will commit great havoc 

 among peas in a garden, if the latter be near a wood inhabited 

 by the birds. It is detested by the gamekeeper as a devourer 

 of eggs and young birds, and at certain seasons of the year it 

 is as omnivorous as any of its Corvine relations. When on the 

 ground, it does not walk like the other Corvida^ but hops like 

 the majority of Passerine birds. 



Nest. A cup-shaped structure adapted to its surroundings, 

 placed on a branch of a bush or tree, sometimes at a con- 

 siderable height from the ground. Composed of twigs and 

 roots, and lined with finer rootlets. 



Eggs. Three to six ; axis, i -2-1 -4 ; diam., 0-9 ; colour varying 

 from grey or clay-colour to olive brown, in the latter case almost 

 devoid of markings ; but the ordinary type of egg is thickly 

 clouded with minute spots of pale brown, sometimes forming 

 a ring at one end or the other. (Plate XXX., Fig. 5.) 



THE CHOUGHS. SUB-FAMILY FREGILIN^E. 



The Choughs constitute a small section of the Crows. They 

 belong exclusively to the Old World, and differ from the true 

 Corvida in the position of the nostrils, which are situated 

 low down in the bill, nearer to the lower edge of the mandi- 

 ble than to the upper. Two genera are found in Europe 

 and Northern Asia, and a third form (Ccrcorax) inhabits 

 Australia. 





