COMMON JAY. 573 



the ground. Unlike the Crow and the Rook^ the present species almost 

 always selects a suitable situation in the lower branches of the tall 

 hollies, yews, fir trees, or whitethorns, or in a thick hazel bush. Sterland 

 mentions a nest he found at the top of a beech tree, 50 or 60 feet from the 

 ground. A favourite place for a Jay's nest is in some thick clustering mass 

 of woodbine growing over a shrub ; and it has been said to nest in a hole 

 of a tree ; but this was probably only where the hollow was much exposed. 

 Sticks (not so coarse, however, as those used by the Magpie), sometimes 

 cemented with mud, and fibrous roots are the materials used. In form 

 the Jay's nest is cup-shaped, deep, and very bulky. It is generally very 

 neatly made, and on the same model as the nests of the Bullfinch, the 

 Hawfinch, and the Sparrow-Hawk. The coarsest twigs are selected for the 

 foundation. As the construction of the nest proceeds, finer and finer twigs 

 are chosen ; and, finally, the lining is composed of roots, which often project 

 above the outside structure. The eggs are laid by the latter end of April, 

 more frequ.ently in the first or second week of May, and are from five to 

 seven in number. They are bluish green in ground-colour, usually evenly 

 and thickly speckled over the whole surface with olive-brown, and sometimes 

 marked with a few streaks of rich brown. Some specimens are not so 

 closely marked and have a greener appearance, as more of the ground- 

 colour is visible ; whilst others have the greater part of the spots collected 

 in an indistinct zone round the egg. They vary in length from 1'35 to 

 12 inch, and in breadth from I'O to '85 inch. 



At most times of the year the Jay is a noisy bird, and its harsh screams 

 are ever heard, reminding the observer of its presence ; but in the breeding- 

 season its habits undergo a marked change in this respect. It is rarely 

 heard to call, save when alarmed, during the whole period of incubation, 

 and keeps so close to the cover that it will build in the shrubberies close 

 to our houses, and we are only made aware of the fact when the old bu-ds 

 lead their noisy young through the trees. Only one brood is reared in 

 the season ; and usually the old birds and their young form a family- 

 party, and keep together through the autumn and winter. 



The migrations of the Jay are an interesting feature in its history ; and 

 although the bird's flight appears so slow, uncertain, and laborious, it is a 

 fact that, in some autumns, the bird passes over enormous distances. In 

 the ' Zoologist ' for 1883, p. 1, a most graphic account bearing on this 

 portion of the Jay's economy may be found, from the able pen of jMr. John 

 Cordeaux. From observations which he has been able to collect from 

 various sources, but chiefly from that veteran observer of bird-life, my 

 friend Mr. Gaetke of Heligoland, he establishes most clearly the fact that 

 the bird is a migratory one — not from its northern forests in Scandinavia, 

 but from the east, across (lermany, from the forests of the Oder and the 

 Vistula, and probably from the eastern limits of its range. From this able 



