Wild Birds, Useful and Injurious. 
23 
they take the eggs of game, though they are probably 
less destructive in this respect than magpies. Their fondness 
for acorns and beechmast is well known, whilst their visits 
to gardens occasion much annoyance, for they strip the pods of 
the peas from end to end of the rows in the most mischievous 
manner. Those who have suffered in this way describe the 
note of the jay as harsh and disagreeable, and it must be 
admitted that the first epithet is sufficiently correct. 
The Swallow and the Martin appear in spring after passing 
the winter in Africa. They are often mistaken one for the 
other, but may be readily recognised, the swallow by its 
Fig. 2. — Jay (Garrulus glnndartus). 
chestnut throat, blue upper parts, and the long outer feathers 
of its forked tail, and the martin by the white patch on its 
back. The nest of the swallow is almost always supported 
from below, for instance by the timbers o^ a roof, and is 
open at the top ; that of the martin is most commonly fastened 
to the wall of a house underneath the eaves, and only a small 
hole is left for entrance. Both species feed on winged insects 
of all sorts, and doubtless make no distinction between useful 
and injurious kinds, but on the whole they are invaluable and 
are amongst the few birds of which we could hardly have too 
