THE JAY. 95 



be found several, which strikingly exhibit this bird as one of 

 great sagacity, but we have not space to quote them. WATEETON 

 considers that when Jackdaws once pair they remain partners for 

 life : they are found in most parts of this country, as well as in 

 Holland, France, Germany, Italy, and on the northern shores of 

 Africa ; also in Denmark, Scandinavia, Russia,, Western Siberia, 

 and even Iceland. Specimens have been found in Smyrna and 

 Trebizcnd, and most of the countries between the Black and the 

 Caspian Seas ; but neither in India proper nor throughout the 

 continent of America. This bird is happily characterized in a 

 poem by VINCENT BOURNE, well rendered by Cowper. We have 

 only space for the first verse : 



" There is a bird who by his coat, 

 And by the hoarseness of his note, 



Might be supposed a crow ; 

 A great frequenter of the church, 

 Where, bishop-like, he finds a perch, 

 And dormitory too." 



13. THE JAY. 



Corvus Glandarius, LIN. Le Geai, BUF. Der Holzheher, BECH. 

 Description. This is a beautiful bird, which in my youth I 

 have often seen among the peasants of the Thuringian forest, 

 confined in a cage and taught to speak. It is thirteen inches 

 and a half long, and about the size of a Pigeon ; its beak is 

 black, and resembles that of a Crow ; the feet are brown and 

 somewhat inclining to flesh colour ; all its smaller feathers are 

 soft and silky ; almost the whole body may be described as 

 tinged with purple ashen grey ; the throat is whitish ; the eyes 

 reddish white ; the vent and rump quite white ; the large loose 

 feathers on the top of the head can be erected into a black grey 

 and purple crest ; on each side of the head a black stripe runs 

 from the lower mandible almost half way down the neck ; the 

 pen feathers are blackish, the centre ones having a white border, 

 which produces a spot of the same colour on the wings. The 

 larger coverts are crossed on the outer side by bright narrow 

 stripes of whitish blue, light blue, and bluish black, the colours 

 of which blend together like those of the rainbow, and add 

 much to the beauty of the bird ; the tail feathers are black, 

 but grey at the roots, and towards the point marked by trans- 

 verse bands like those just described. The female is only 

 distinguishable from the male by having on the back of the 

 neck a greyish, in place of a reddish tinge. 



