THE JAY. 
torn for his trouble. When he is hard pressed for food, and 
the fruit-trees are getting barren, he will hunt among the 
fallen leaves for the nest of small animals, and plunder their 
hoards. Folks who live in the country will find no difficulty 
in procuring a jay’s nest, and there is no reason, in this penny - 
a-mile travelling age, why town-boys should not share the 
privilege. Woods and coppices are the places in which the 
jay’s nest should be sought, especially those in the neighbour- 
hood of cherry orchards, or pea or bean fields. The nest may 
easily be distinguished from any other large bird’s on account 
of its trim and substantial make. The eggs are grey, blurred 
with brown, and streaked at the largest end with dark purple. 
The lower branches of the oak is a situation frequently chosen 
as a building-site by this bird. 
The young jays should be at least a fortnight old before they 
are taken from the nest. Until they can help themselves, they 
should be fed six times a day on sopped bread, curds, and 
finely-shred beef. 
If you wish to train them to talk, the fledglings must be 
hung apart from any other birds. Their capacity, however, 
for imitating the ’human voice is small, though no bird is so 
apt at imitating the voices of animals or noises produced by 
mechanical means. Bewick mentions the case of a carpenter 
who possessed a jay, and who gained an evil repute among his 
neighbours for working on Sundays, till at last it was dis- 
covered that all the wood-sawing that was performed on 
Sunday proceeded from Mr. Jay’s throat. He mentions 
another, who, at the approach of cattle, amused himself by 
hounding a cur-dog upon them, whistling and calling on him 
by name. At last, during a severe frost, the dog was by this 
means incited to attack a sick cow, the result of which was 
that the poor animal slipped on the ice and was badly hurt. 
The jay in question was complained of as a nuisance, and 
ordered to be destroyed. I myself know of a jay, the property 
of an undertaker, and who has so successfully caught the rest- 
less “ tap, tap, tap,” of the little hammer on the big-headed 
nails that it is a certain fit of melancholy to hear him. 
Between the owl and the jay there exists a most unfriendly 
spirit, and should ever the former bird encounter the latter, he 
of the rainbow wings immediately sets up such a screaming as 
speedily attracts all the jays in the neighbourhood. It is 
seldom the owl is attacked, otherwise than verbally, by his 
tormentors ; so there he sits, calmly regarding them with his 
48 
