COR 
4.5. Corvus clioucador, the choucador daw, The plu¬ 
mage of this yields to few birds in brilliancy and varia¬ 
bleness of colours. It is nearly the fize of the Indian 
daw, but fomewhat more robuli; the head, back, Ikies 
of the neck, and pinions, are of a very bright gold green ; 
the mantle and feapularies of the pureft gold colour 
highly burnifhed; the large wing-coverts are the colour 
ot polillied Heel, fet off with purple, and varying from 
ultramarine blue to dark emerald green ; the wing-quills 
are glbU'y black, but violet varying to purple at their 
origin, and terminating in a rich gold-colour, which tips 
the outer webs ; the quills of the tail are of a copper- 
colour, Ipread like a thin powder, efpecially on the mid¬ 
quills; the laterals are bordered with dull green, which 
at tire extremities takes a beautiful fliade of blue or vio¬ 
let, according as they are turned towards the light; the 
front ot the neck, the bread, and under parts of the 
body, are gold-colour ihaded with violet, fimilar to the 
Scapulars, but not fo bright as on the parts above ; tire 
upper and under tail-coverts, and tire lower belly, are 
dark green; the quills are all black underneath. This 
Species is defended from a duffed bird in the cabinet of 
M. Raye, of Breukelervvaert: its country is not known. 
Vaillant calls it le choucador. 
46. Corvus glandarius, the common jay. This is ef- 
teerned one of the mod beautiful of the Britifh birds. Its 
principal ornament is the blue plate, or rather mail, 
formed by various fhades of blue, with which each of its 
wings is decorated, and which Indices to didinguidi it 
from all the other European birds. It has alio on its 
Sorehead a tuft of Small mixed feathers, black, blue, and 
white ; in general its feathers have all a foft and dlky 
feel, and it can at pleafure raife and deprefs thofe on its 
head. It is lefs than the magpie ; its tail is Ihorter, and 
its wings longer in proportion, but it can Scarcely fly 
better. The male is didinguilhed by the Superior bulk 
of his head and luflre of his colours. The old ones dif¬ 
fer alfo from the young in their plumage; and lienee the 
various inconddent- descriptions. The jays have keen 
fenfations and brifk movements, and in their frequent 
burds of rage they hurry into danger. When they feel 
redraint, their violence exceeds bounds ; and hence, in 
a cage, they entirely lofe their beauty, by tire continual 
rumpling, wearing, and breaking, of their feathers. Their 
ordinary cry is harlh and frequent; they are alio fond of 
mocking other birds whole notes are not more agreeable, 
Such as the buzzard, tawny owl, &c. If they perceive 
in the wood a fox, dog, or other animal, they give a 
fhrill frream to alarm their companions ; they quickly 
aflemble, prefuming' they Shall be formidable by their 
numbers, or at lead by their noife. This inftimft which 
they have of Summoning their force, together with then- 
violent antipathy to the hawk, owl, See. fugged feveral 
ways of enfnaring them. They have, like the daws, 
crows, and ravens, the habit of burying their Superflu¬ 
ous provisions, and of dealing whatever they can obtain. 
But they cannot always recognize the fpot where they 
have buried their treafure, or, like all nufers, they are 
more actuated by the fear of encroaching on their dock, 
than by the deiire of udhg it; fo that, in the fucceeding 
ipring, the acorns and nuts that were concealed, perhaps 
forgotten, germinate in the earth, and their tender leaves 
discover the ufelefs heap, though too late, to the fordid 
hoarders. The jays breed in woods remote from human 
dwellings, preferring the mod branchy oaks, whole trunks 
are entwined with ivy : but they are not fo artful as the 
magpie in building their neds ; they are hollow hemi¬ 
spheres, formed with fmall interwoven roots, open above, 
without any loft lining, and without any exterior de¬ 
fence. They lay five or lix eggs, fmaller than pigeons’ 
t'Sgs, of a greenilh hue, with Small Spots faintly marked. 
The young undergo their moulting in July, and keep 
company with their parents till the fucceeding fpring, 
when they Separate, to form new pairs. By this time 
V U S. ' 043 
the blue plate on their wings, which appears very early, 
lias"attained its highed beauty. 
In the domedic condition, they quickly learn to talk, 
and become accudomed to all forts of food, and will live 
in this way eight of ten years. In the date of freedom 
they feed on acorns, chefnuts, peafe, beans, goofeber- 
ries, cherries, ra(berries, &c. They alfo prey on the 
young of other birds, when they can furprife them in the 
neff during the abfence of the parents; and Sometimes 
they venture to attack the old ones. Their flefli, though 
not delicate, is eatable. In jays, the fil'd phalanx of the 
outer toe is in each foot connefted with that of the mid¬ 
dle toe. They are found in Sweden, Scotland, England, 
France, Germany, and Italy ; and are natives of every 
country in Europe, and of the correfponding climates in 
Aiia. 
There is a variety of this fpecies, called the white jay. 
It lias the blue mark.on the wings, but is didinguilhed 
from the common jay by the alinoft univerfal whitenels 
of its plumage, which extends even to its bill and nails, 
and by the red co]our of its eyes, a property obferved in 
fo many other white animals. But we mud not imagine 
that this white complexion is entirely pure; it is often 
diaded with a yellovvifli tinge of various intendty. The 
coverts of the wings arc the whited; and its feet are 
more (lender than thofe of the common jay. Dr. La¬ 
tham obtained a white jay, which was taken out of the 
ned with four others of the common colour. The name 
of this bird in Greek, according to Belon, is ( <j.oO\c/.y.ovga.~ 
vsv<; ; in modern Greek, y.agay.ui;a ; in Latin, garrulus ; 
in Spanilh, gayo, cayo ; in Italian, ghiandaia, g-aza verla, 
berta, bertina, baretino ; in German, /taker, hatzlcr, baum 
h'atzel , (tree-jay,) cicken-heher, (oak-jay,) mtfs-heker, (nut- 
jay,) nu/s-keker, (nut-hedger,) jack, broe-kexter, maggrajj, 
marcolfus ; in Swifs, hercn-vogel ; in Poli {\\,foyha\ in Swe- 
dilh, net-jkrika , allon-Jkrika, korn-Jkrika. 
47. Corvus erythroihynchos, the red-billed jay, firffc 
deferibed by Buffon, and copied from him by Linnaeus 
and Gmelin'. But Vaillant maintains that Button's delign 
and description are extremely defective ; the two middle 
quills of the tail are wanting in it, as lie proved by com¬ 
paring his own fpecimen with that preferved in the na¬ 
tional cabinet at Paris', which w r as the model from which 
Buffon’s drawing and description were taken. It comes 
from China, and is tomewhat lefs than our jay; that is, 
not fo thick, but, including the tail, condderably longer, 
as the tail itfelf is half as long again as the body. The 
bill and feet are not red, as Buffon afierts, but orange- 
colour; the forehead," cheeks, throat, front, and Sides of 
the neck, are black ; the top of the head is covered 
with bluifh-grey feathers, which, being long and broad, 
form a kind of pendent ere ft. The mantle and fcapil¬ 
laries are of a reddifh grey ihaded with violet; but thefe 
fhades of blue, violet, and red, are variable in different 
lights. The wing-quills are of the fineft ultramarine blue ; 
at the ends white. The feathers-of-the under part ot the 
body, from the bread: to the tail, are long, loft, and white. 
The tail confifts of ten quills of different lengths; the 
middle ones are very long, and of a blue colour, except 
a little black at the points, but their ends are' entirely 
white ; the other quills are black alfo on the edges, ami 
terminate in a large white fpot; their exterior webs are 
of a fine blue, the interior w hite ; fo that the tail is white 
underneath, and blue on the furface ; the two middle 
tail-feathers are very remarkable ; towards the extremity, 
the feather riles on each fide the quill, making a kind of 
hollow or gutter. No particulars tire known refpecting 
the modes of life of this bird ; but Vaillant was induced 
to give a figure of it, on account of the defects he ob¬ 
ferved in Buffon’s defeription. Vaiilant has alfo a re¬ 
mark on the palpable errors in many of Buffon’s coloured 
plates ; he fays the fpecimens of natural hiftory in the 
late king’s, now the national, cabinet, from which his 
descriptions and drawings are taken, had been frequently- 
fumigated 
