A JAUNTY JAY. 1^9 



the second on the other ; while the tiny wren, which creeps 

 through the bushes as a mouse through the grass, cowers 

 in terror, or slips into a knot-hole till the danger is past. 

 When the husbandman has sown his field with the drill, 

 hardly has he left the gateway before a legion of small 

 birds pours out from the hedgerows and seeks for the 

 stray seeds. Then you may see the jay hop out among 

 them with an air of utter innocence, settling on the larger 

 lumps of clay for convenience of view, swelling out his 

 breast in pride of beauty, jerking his tail up and down, as 

 if to say, Admire me. With a sidelong hop and two flaps 

 of the wing, he half springs, half glides to another coign 

 of vantage. The small birds, sparrows, chaffinches, green- 

 finches — instantly scatter swiftly right and left, not rising, 

 but with a hasty run for a yard or so. They know well 

 his murderous intent, and yet are so busy they only put 

 themselves just out of reach, aware that, unlike the hawk, 

 he cannot strike at a distance. This game will continue 

 for a long time ; the jay all the while affecting an utter 

 indifference, yet ever on the alert till he spies his chance. 

 It is the young or weakly partridges and pheasants that 

 fall to the jay and magpie. 



The keeper also destroys owls — on suspicion. Now 

 and then some one argues with the keeper, assuring him 

 that they do not touch game, but this he regards as pure 

 sentimentalism. ' Look at his beak,' is his steady reply, 



' Tell me that that there bill weren't made to tear a bird's 



K 



