340 
COItVIDiE. 
more were cut; it is still [1812] however to be met with about 
Shane/ s Castle, and other woods at the borders of the lake [Neagh] ” 
I have been unable to verify its being there at so late a period. 
It must not be taken for granted, that the bird called jay in the 
north of Ireland is the Garrulus glandarius , as that name is fre- 
quently bestowed on the missel- thrush ( Turdus viscivorus *) . The 
latest evidence known to me of the occurrence of the true jay in 
that quarter, is afforded by a venerable friend, who more than 
sixty years ago, received three young birds from a nest in Port- 
more park, on the borders of Lough Neagh, once rich in fine 
woods of oak, but which have long since fallen before the axe. 
In the Irish Statutes, (17th of George II., chap. 10,) a reward is 
offered for the head of the jay, together with that of the magpie 
and others of the Corvidae . Mr. Yarrell seems to imagine that it 
is to the numbers killed in consequence of this reward being 
offered, that the species generally became less numerous with us ; 
but as the jay can, like the Corvidae, for which a reward was at the 
same time offered, take very good care of itself, I should attribute 
its decrease to other and more natural causes. This author men- 
tions the jay as frequenting most of the wooded districts of 
England. With reference to its distribution in Ireland, it is de- 
sirable to ascertain how widely it is found in Scotland. Sir Wm. 
Jardine observes, that “ as we proceed northward it becomes much 
more local, though by no means rare, where it is found frequenting 
generally the older wood around private seats, and in parks, and 
some of the forests in the middle highlands. It is common both 
in Perth and Argyleshire, but we are not sure that it extends to 
the forests of the far north.” j* I should think that the jay is not 
generally distributed throughout Perthshire, as I have been daily in 
fine old woods well suited to the species, in the north-west of the 
county without seeing it. In the neighbourhood of Dunkeld, 
this bird is not uncommon. About Aberarder, Inverness-shire, 
where there is a great extent of wood, though not so aged as the 
jay prefers, it has not occurred to me. 
* This bird is correctly remarked by Dubourdieu to be “ now frequent,” so that 
the true jay would seem to be the bird he alluded to. 
t Brit. Birds, vol.ii. p. 253. 
