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PERCHING BIRDS. 
jays crowding together in the most sheltered part of a tree, to obtain protec¬ 
tion from the wind. If the tree or bush be small, and the best space limited, it 
may happen that some of the birds will perch on the back of their fellows, and 
thus form a regular pyramid. Like most gregarious pies and jays, when the 
Hock is on the move, one bird dies off drst, followed soon by another, and then 
by a third, till the whole party is on the wing. As a rule, the nest is built in a 
tall and thorny tree, and though it is strongly constructed, so coarsely made is it, 
urraca jay (8 nat. size). 
that the eggs can always be seen from below, and sometimes actually fall through 
the chinks. With a blue ground-colour, and a chalky incrustation, the eggs are 
generally six or seven in number, although upwards of fourteen have been taken 
from a single nest. 
The Grey Distinguished by the arched form of the short bill, which 
struthidea. Gould regarded as specially adapted to enable the bird to feed upon 
the seeds extracted from the cones of a tree found only in the district which it 
