94 The Naturalist in Siluria. 



Had Barham, while writing his " Ingoldsby Legends/' 

 but known of this Tipperary incident, he might have 

 given it a place alongside the " Jackdaw of Rheims." 



THE JAY A CARRION FEEDER. 



While an incident chronicled below shows the alliance 

 of the Jay to hawks and shrikes, it also partakes to some 

 extent of a vulturine character. For not only does it 

 eat fresh meat of all sorts and kinds — even greedily 

 devouring fat bacon — but will not disdain that which is 

 tainted. I could recount many instances of its feeding 

 on carrion — dead sheep left lying neglected near a wood's 

 edge, or unburied offal thrown out by a farmstead — 

 sharing the repulsive banquet with rat, stoat, weazel, 

 magpie, and tomtit, to say nothing of Ganis domesticus. 

 Odd enough that in his stroll through Savernake Forest, 

 the same in which he was witness to the encounter spoken 

 of — a reverend friend of mine and his companions came 

 upon the body of a dead deer — a carcase fast iastening to 

 putrefaction — with a Jay perched upon it, " stocking " 

 away with all its might ! 



The scientific names given to bird, quadruped, reptile, 

 or insect should, where possible, set forth some indication ' 

 of its character and habits. Unfortunately, this golden 

 rule is too often disregarded, the vanity of naturalists — 

 especially they of the closet — leading them to bestow 

 titles complimentary to friends and patrons, so making 

 the nomenclature of zoology unintelligible as ludicrous. 



