SIBERIAN JAY. 11 



tliat among tlie form Otmiivorce tliey will find a vast field for tlie 

 development of their new views. I hope this observation will not be 

 construed into any disparagement of so great and original a naturalist 

 as Swainson. The accuracy of his descriptions, the clearness and 

 elegance of his language, the able criticism by which he unravelled 

 the obscurity which the verbiage and synonymic lumber of many 

 bygone writers had thrown around difierent species, will long render 

 his name distinguished among the philosophical naturalists of the age 

 which he adorned. But with all this it must be admitted that in the 

 separation of closely allied species into difierent genera, often to favour 

 his well-known views, he has done much to retard the attainment of 

 a natural system of classification. The Jays were originally classed 

 by Linnceus among the Crows. Temminck and others followed the 

 same plan. Brisson, however, originally had classed them separately, 

 under the generic name of Garrulus, which Vieillot, in 1817, restored, 

 and he has been followed by almost all other authors of eminence, 

 including Temminck, in the third edition of his Manual. 



There have been few if any naturalists equal to Brisson for accuracy 

 of observation, and the writers on ornithology of the present age paid 

 a just tribute to his genius, by adopting his classification of this and 

 many other well-defined groups. No classical learning nor minute 

 analysis can ever make a Jay anything else than a Jay, and in this 

 as in many other branches of natural history, we are apt to lose sight 

 of real natural affinity in a refined hair-splitting philosophy which 

 equally retards the study and the knowledge of nature. 



Though Asia is given as a locality for the Siberian Jay, it is almost 

 exclusively confined to Northern Europe, Temminck says entirely. 

 It is found in Norway, Sweden, Lapland, Hussia, and Siberia, where 

 it is not uncommon. Temminck says that in Norway it bears the 

 name of the Bird of Misfortune. It generally remains, according to 

 M. Bore, squatted on the fork of the branches near the trunk of the 

 tree, from which it sends forth a very piercing sonorous cry. It is 

 a bold bird, and will steal fiesh wherever it can. It also feeds on 

 caterpillars and insects, mice and small birds. 



It nests among the firs and pines, three or four yards from the 

 ground, and makes its nest of moss and fibres, hairs and feathers. 

 It lays five or six eggs, smaller than those of the common magpie, 

 of a bluish grey, with the spots darker, some of which congregate 

 round the larger end, others round the smaller. 



Mr. "VVoUey found the eggs in his visits to Lapland in 1857 and 

 1858, and there were five in each of his catalogues for these years. 

 He says, "Common as this bird is, and obtrusive as its habits for 



