244 JAYS—BAIT FOR. [PART II, 
of the family blood, if not honours, concentrated 
in his person. The keeper wound up his account 
of his share of the transaction by saying he be- 
lieved that a stoat would at one meal eat up an- 
other as big as itself. 
Jays are of some slight service to game-pre- 
servers in giving pheasants notice of the approach 
of danger. If you are perfectly concealed from 
pheasants as they come to their feed, but exposed 
to view from above, and a jay happens to catch 
sight of you, at his first warning “squark” every 
pheasant will take the hint and be off instanter. 
But, although there is this redeeming point in 
their favour, yet the havoc which they commit 
amongst the eggs of game, to say nothing of young 
birds, which I have no doubt they are not averse 
to picking up occasionally—I have seen one carry 
off a good sized young thrush—renders it the 
interest of every game-preserver, and the duty 
of every keeper, to get rid of them as fast as 
possible. To effect this no plan will, I believe, 
be found to answer more effectually than sham 
eggs as baits with a gin. They should be turned 
out of wood—birch answers very well—and colour- 
ed and varnished to represent the natural ones. 
Thrush’s are perhaps as good as any for the 
