JAY. 121 



The Jay seldom builds its nest higher than twenty feet 

 from the ground, preferring the upper part of a thick bush 

 in high wood, or in a tall hedge-row, and occasionally one 

 of the lower branches of a large tree, if sufficiently thick 

 with leaves to afford the required concealment. The nest is 

 cup-shaped, open at the top, formed on the outside with 

 short sticks, and thickly lined with fine roots and grasses. 

 The female lays five or six eggs of a yellowish white ground 

 colour, minutely and thickly speckled all over with light 

 brown, presenting the appearance of a uniform yellow-grey 

 brown ; the length one inch four lines, and one inch in 

 breadth. 



The young birds follow their parents for several months 

 after they leave the nest, some observers say even to the 

 pairing-time of the following spring. Montagu says they 

 are never gregarious ; but they are stated by Vieillot, and 

 others, to perform certain migrations in small flocks in the 

 southern parts of the European continent, and they have 

 been seen, by those who pay constant attention to the 

 habits of birds, to come in the winter, in small parties of 

 from twenty to forty at a time, to take up their temporary 

 residence in thick woods on the Hampshire coast, in the 

 vicinity of Christchurch. 



Young birds are easily brought up from the nest, soon 

 become very tame, and in confinement appear to prefer 

 meat to any other description of food. Although the most 

 common notes of the Jay are harsh and grating, the bird in 

 captivity soon becomes an amusing pet, from the facility 

 with which it imitates the sound of the human voice, and 

 indeed almost any other sound that is to be heard suffi- 

 ciently often to afford the opportunity of acquiring it. 

 Montagu says that it will sometimes in the spring utter a 

 sort of song in a soft and pleasing manner, but so low as 



