379 Winged Vermin. 



what conditions, magpies and jays may interfere with 

 the purpose of the game-preserver. The former bird is less 

 gregarious than the latter in its habits, and works, as a 

 rule, singly, or in twos and threes, whilst jays will fre- 

 quently consort in considerable numbers for their joint 

 purpose. As regards the destruction magpies commit, a 

 great deal depends upon whether they be numerous in the 

 neighbourhood or not. The more numerous they are the 

 less difficult are they to catch, and the less, comparatively 

 speaking, damage do they do. Of course, more magpies 

 do more damage than few, but it usually proves the case 

 that individual pairs or broods, working in different parts 

 of a preserve, will account for more eggs and young birds 

 and ground-game than many more spread over the same 

 area. They are much more difficult to get at for shot, or 

 to trap. Comparatively they do more damage within 

 the coverts and in the fields and pastures adjoining than 

 do jays, whose preference is decided for work along 

 the hedges and hedgerows in spinneys, small clumps of 

 trees, and along those fringing and dividing the open 

 ground. The dietary of the jay is more akin to that of the 

 rook than is the food-list of the magpie, whose tastes are 

 akin to those of the crow. This constitutes the main 

 difference between the two birds regarded as vermin, and 

 marks the magpie under ordinary circumstances as dis- 

 tinctly more destructive to the charges of the game- 

 preserver than is the jay. 



Before passing to the best mode of taking these vermin, 

 when it will be necessary for me to point out where their 

 depredations chiefly occur, a word or two as to the discovery 

 of their nests and destruction by shooting of the old 

 birds and also of the young may be useful. Both 

 magpies and jays may be said to be natural sentinels of 

 the woods and fields. Their note of warning to one 



