148 BRITISH. BIRDS, WITH THELR NESTS AND EGGS. 
rapid beatings of the wings. The Jay’s peculiar flight is seen to the greatest per- 
fection when the bird is flying in the open; for in the thick cover they appear to 
scurry off amongst the branches, anxious to conceal themselves as soon as possible. 
In spring the Jay may sometimes be observed to fly at a considerable elevation 
above its native woods, and, suddenly closing its wings to shoot downwards like 
an arrow into the cover below. Although capable of long-sustained flight, in this 
country it rarely flies far, preferring to go from tree to tree or to pursue its way 
through the tangled undergrowth. When perched in a tree the Jay sits well upright, 
its tail sometimes wafted to and fro, its head constantly turned from side to side, 
and its crest erected or depressed, its restless actions showing its wariness and 
timidity at being so far from cover. When thus perched the Jay can sometimes be 
approached very closely; and it is a noteworthy fact, that singularly beautiful and 
conspicuous as the bird’s plumage is, it is rarely seen until its harsh note proclaims 
its departure to a safer retreat.” 
If not aware of the vicinity of man, however, the Jay is by no means so shy, 
his curiosity soon gets the better of his nervousness and he comes into the open 
to investigate the cause of every sound; yet he is ever on the alert and the least 
sudden movement sends him back instantly to. cover. 
The nest of the Jay is believed to be rarely built at a great height from the 
ground, of those which I found the highest elevation was about sixteen feet, in 
the branches of a sapling too slender to support the weight of a man, so that I 
and my companion were compelled to draw it gradually down until I was able to lift 
out the nest from its cradle of twigs. My first nest was in a plantation of ash- 
trees and so near the ground that I was able to lift it down without climbing, it 
contained a full clutch of six eggs, and I had no sooner taken it than both 
parents, who where close by, made the whole neighbourhood ring with their harsh 
screams of rage; I caught a glimpse of one of them, but only for a moment, it 
had not sufficient courage to come close. 
The nest is frequently placed in hawthorn, sloe, hazel, fir, yew, or holly, and 
is very compact and strongly built, though externally it has a ragged appearance, 
being constructed of interlaced sticks and twigs, which become denser and are 
moulded into a neat cup-shape in the centre: the lining consists of rootlets or 
grasses and horsehair. The eggs number from five to seven and, excepting that 
their average size is larger, much resemble one of the less typical varieties of the 
Blackbird’s egg: in ground colour they are pale green, so densely mottled with 
lighter or darker clay-colour that their general tone is either pale olivaceous stone- 
colour, or pale clay-colour; at the larger extremity which is usually slightly deeper 
in tint, there is very frequently an irregular black line, like a crack - sometimes 
