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The Siberian Jay is not a bird suitable for a cage : it is an

example of perpetual motion, flying up and down, climbing,

hanging, searching everything for insects, examining its

“ hoards,”—for it hides everything it cannot eat, and always

makes a reserve of some special dainty in the pouch under its

tongue. It is very amusing to hold out a caterpillar or meal¬

worm when it has its pouch full—it will make room by bringing

up the pellet of food, balance it on a perch, come and take the

mealworm and swallow it, and pouch the pellet again ( a ). It is

omnivorous, but does not care for any farinaceous food if it can

get anything else. It likes fruit, and is particularly fond of

elderberries. Beetles are the most favourite of all food, and in

Spring I feed mine largely on cockchaffers, which it prefers to

anything.


The plumage is wonderfully dense and curiously hairy in

texture, as would be expected from a bird which has to withstand

the intense cold of North Siberian forests in Winter. It is

extraordinary how these birds, the Pied Woodpeckers, and the

Tits can support life during the long winter’s night that lasts

for weeks; for they do not migrate, and their food principally

consists of eggs and pupae of insects hidden in the bark of

trees, as the whole country is ice-bound.


This Jay is a wonderful mimic, and its own voice is

delightfully wild and musical ; it has, however, a great variety

of cries, some of which are perhaps rather the reverse. It is

altogether a most charming and interesting bird, and a delightful

pet to any one who does not demand something 1 ' gaudy.”



NOTES ON VARIOUS SPECIES OF GREBES,


WITH SPECIAR REFERENCE TO THE POWER OF

WARRING AND DIGESTION POSSESSED BY THESE BIRDS.


By F. Finn, B.A., F.Z.S.,


Deputy Superintendent of the Indian Museum.


The remarkable birds forming the family Podicipedidce

of ornithologists have long possessed for me especial interest,

and I venture herewith to record my observations on several of

the species, which I have had the good fortune to study in

captivity, and thus to observe under conditions which have, I

hope, enabled me to set at rest some doubts concerning certain

particulars in their economy.



{a) A habit common to all this family.—E.G.B.M.-W.



