340 CORVIDiE. 



more were cut; it is still [1812] however to be met with about 

 Shane's Castle, and other woods at the borders of the lake [Neagh]." 

 I have been unable to verify its being there at so late a period. 

 It must not be taken for granted, that the bird called jay in the 

 north of Ireland is the Garrulus glandarius, as that name is fre- 

 quently bestowed on the missel-thrush (Turdus viscivorus*). The 

 latest evidence known to me of the occurrence of the true jay in 

 that quarter, is afforded by a venerable friend, who more than 

 sixty years ago, received three young birds from a nest in Port- 

 more park, on the borders of Lough Neagh, once rich in fine 

 woods of oak, but which have long since fallen before the axe. 

 In the Irish Statutes, (17th of George II., chap. 10,) a reward is 

 offered for the head of the jay, together with that of the magpie 

 and others of the Corvida. Mr. Yarrell seems to imagine that it 

 is to the numbers killed in consequence of tins reward being 

 offered, that the species generally became less numerous with us ; 

 but as the jay can, like the Corvidce, for which a reward was at the 

 same time offered, take very good care of itself, I should attribute 

 its decrease to other and more natural causes. Tins author men- 

 tions the jay as frequenting most of the wooded districts of 

 England. With reference to its distribution in Ireland, it is de- 

 sirable to ascertain how widely it is found in Scotland. Sir Wm. 

 Jardine observes, that " as we proceed northward it becomes much 

 more local, though by no means rare, where it is found frequenting 

 generally the older wood around private seats, and in parks, and 

 some of the forests in the middle highlands. It is common both 

 in Perth and Argyleshire, but we are not sure that it extends to 

 the forests of the far north." f I should think that the jay is not 

 generally distributed throughout Perthshire, as I have been daily in 

 fine old woods well suited to the species, in the north-west of the 

 county without seeing it. In the neighbourhood of Dunkeld, 

 this bird is not uncommon. About Aberarder, Inverness-shire, 

 where there is a great extent of wood, though not so aged as the 

 jay prefers, it has not occurred to me. 



* This bird is correctly remarked by Dubourdieu to be " now frequent," so that 

 the true jay would seem to be the bird he alluded to. 



t Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 253. 



