©2? BIRDS* 
193 
Jay. (PI. 30.) The jay is one of the most elegant 
birds produced in the British islands. The head is co- 
vered with very long feathers, capable of being erected 
into a crest at pleasure. The forehead is white, streaked 
with black; the neck, black and white; and the tail is en- 
tirely black. 
This bird is remarkable for its harsh grating voice, and 
restless disposition. Upon seeing the sportsman, it gives, 
by its cries, the alarm of danger, and thereby defeats 
his aim and disappoints him. The jay builds in w r oods, 
and makes an artless nest composed of sticks, fibres, and 
tender twigs: the female lays five or six eggs, of a gray- 
ish ash colour, mixed with green, and faintly spotted 
with brown. 
Roller. (PL 30.) This rare bird is distinguished by 
a plumage of most exquisite beauty; it vies with the par- 
rot in an assemblage of the finest shades of blue and 
green, mixed with white, and heightened by the contrast 
of graver colours, from which perhaps it has been called 
the German parrot, although in every other respect it 
differs from that bird, and seems rather to claim affinity 
with the crow kind, to which we have made it an appen- 
dage. In size it resembles the jay, being somewhat 
more than twelve inches in length. Its bill is black, be- 
set with short bristles at the base; the eyes are sur- 
rounded with a ring of naked skin, of a yellow colour, 
-and behind them there is a kind of wart: the head, neck, 
breast, and belly, are of a light pea-green; the points of 
the wings and upper coverts are of a rich deep blue; the 
greater coverts pale green; the quills are of a dusky hue, 
inclining to black, and mixed with deep blue; the rump 
is blue; the- tail is somewhat forked; the lower parts of 
the feathers are of a dusky green, middle parts pale blue, 
tips black: the legs are short, and of a dull yellow. 
This is the only species of its kind found in Europe; 
it is very common in some parts of Germany, but is so 
very rare in England as hardly to deserve the name of a. 
British bird. 
Starling. (PL 30.) The length of this bird is some- 
what less than nine inches. The bill is straight, sharp- 
