482 



a long white patch on the basal half of the outer web, the innermost secondary rich chestnut, with an 

 oblique black patch at the tip ; wing-coverts dusky black on the inner web, and on the outer web 

 barred with black, white, and pale blus alternately ; from the base of the bill, passing below the eye, a 

 long black patch ; chin dull white ; lower part of the throat, breast, and underparts generally dull buffy 

 white, dull reddish on the flanks ; under wing-coverts dull reddish buff; vent and under tail-coverts 

 dull white ; beak blackish brown ; iris bluish white ; feet and legs light reddish brown. Total length 

 15 inches, culmen l - 5, wing 7'2, tail 6 - 5, tarsus 1*5. 



Female. Similar to the male, but somewhat duller in colour. 



The Common Jay is found throughout Europe, from the central and northern parts of Scandi- 

 navia down to Algeria, and eastward to the Ural. In Great Britain it is a common bird, 

 sedentary in most parts, and, according to Mr. A. G. More, found during the breeding-season 

 "as far north as the middle of Scotland." Macgillivray describes the Jay as "found here and 

 there in the woods skirting the Grampians, from Forfar to Dumbarton, and in all the more or 

 less wooded districts southward." Colonel Drummond-Hay marks the Jay as breeding regularly 

 in Perthshire ; and Captain Orde describes it as occurring in Argyleshire " wherever there is 

 much copse-wood." In Scotland, Mr. R. Gray writes, it is " in some districts now rare through 

 the persecution of gamekeepers ; but in others it appears to maintain its ground in spite of all 

 attempts to destroy it. The Dumbartonshire woods, especially those in the neighbourhood of 

 Loch Lomond, still give shelter to limited numbers ; and in many parts of Argyle and Inverness 

 shires the species is still a conspicuous ornament. I have seen it in pairs in the higher reaches 

 of Shemore glen, Loch-Lomond-side, frequenting a thin clump of trees on the hilly slope, about 

 a thousand feet above the sea-level. Mr. William Hamilton has informed me that this bird is 

 common in the woods of upper Loch Fyne ; and the Rev. Alexander Stewart of Ballachulish has 

 sent me word that it has, of recent years, become rather common in the district of Lochaber, 

 Inverness-shire. ' Ten or twelve years ago,' writes Mr. Stewart, ' there was not a Jay in this part 

 of the country ; but within the last few years they have been seen occasionally about Nether 

 Lochaber, and north, as far as Glengarry, along the woods skirting the Caledonian Canal, and 

 about Lochiel's seat of Achnacarry.' According to Mr. Shearer (see Proc. Royal Physical Soc. of 

 Edinb. vol. ii. p. 338), it is found even in Caithness. The species appears to have occurred but 

 once in Shetland." 



There are few parts of England where the Jay is not common. We have ourselves found 

 it in the northern and western counties, as well as in Devonshire, Sussex, Surrey, Kent, and 

 the other southern counties. In some parts of Kent it is especially numerous. Mr. Stevenson 

 writes that it is " common throughout the year, breeding in Norfolk, and, like Pica caudata, 

 would seem to receive, at times at least, considerable accessions to its numbers in autumn. Every 

 sportsman knows the small flocks of these birds which occasionally present themselves during a 

 day's covert-shooting ; and many a gamekeeper, who prides himself on the extinction of ' vermin,' 

 is suddenly disgusted, on his rounds, by finding more noisy Jays, during one day's round, than he 

 has had a chance of shooting in a twelvemonth. Yet these, most probably, are but native-bred 

 birds, which, forming themselves into companies, as is their custom late in the season, rove from 

 one plantation to another in search of acorns and berries as food becomes scarce during sharp 



