S8 THE JAY 



mer is a large bird, as big as a Jay, andj is only an occasional 

 visitor in this country, and whose habits partake of those of the 

 Crows and Woodpeckers. The propriety of its name is question- 

 able, according to Yarrell, who says that ' it cannot crack nuts '. 

 Here perhaps there may be some little mistake. Its name is 

 evidently a translation of the French Cassenoix. In England we 

 mean by ' nuts ' filberts or hazel-nuts ; but the French word 

 noix is applied exclusively to walnuts, our nuts being noisettes, 

 or ' little nuts ' ; and French authors are agreed that its food 

 consists of insects, fruits, and walnuts ; that is, the ordinary 

 diet of its relative, the Rook, whose fondness for walnuts is noto- 

 rious. It lays its eggs in the holes of trees, and, except in the 

 breeding season, is more or less gregarious in its habits. 



THE JAY 



gArrulus glandArius 



Feathers of the crest greyish white, streaked with black ; a black moustache 

 from the corners of the beak ; general plumage reddish grey, darker 

 above ; primaries dingy black ; secondaries velvet-black and pure white ; 

 inner tertials rich chestnut ; winglet and greater coverts barred 

 with black, white, and bright blue ; upper and under tail-coverts 

 pure white ; iris bright blue ; beak black ; feet livid brown. Length 

 thirteen and a half inches ; breadth twenty-two inches. Eggs dull green, 

 minutely and thickly-speckled with olive-brown. 



There exists among gamekeepers a custom of selecting a certain 

 spot in preserved woods, and there suspending, as trophies of their 

 sldll and watchfulness, the bodies of such destructive animals 

 as they have killed in the pursuit of their calling. They are gener- 

 ally those of a few stoats or weasels, a Hawk, a Magpie, an owl, and 

 two or three Jays. All these animals are judged to be destructive 

 to game, and are accordingly hunted to the death, the Jay, perhaps, 

 with less reason than the rest, for though it can hardly resist the 

 temptation of plundering, either of eggs or young, any nest, whether 

 of Partridge or Pheasant, that falls in its way, yet it does not sub- 

 sist entirely upon animal food, but also upon acorns and various 

 other wild fruits. Its blue feathers are much used in the manu- 

 facture of artificial flies. Nevertheless, owing to their cautious 

 and wary habits, there are few wooded districts in which they are 

 not more or less numerous. Their jarring unconnected note, 

 which characterizes them at aU seasons, is in spring and summer 

 varied by their song proper, in which I have never been able to 

 detect anything more melodious than an accurate imitation of the 

 noise made by sawyers at work, though Montagu states that ' it 

 will, sometimes, in the spring utter a sort of song in a soft and 

 pleasing manner, but so low as not to be heard at any distance ; 



