GARRIT LUS GJLAJiDARIüS.
GARRULUS GLANDARIUS
Jay.
Corvus glandarius, Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 256,
Pica glandaria, Klein, Av., n. 61.
Gamiius glandarius, Fiera, ßrit. Anim., p. 86.
Glandarius pictus, Koch, Syst. fiaierisch. Zool.. p. 99.
Ip bird» had the faculty of speech, the Jay might appropriately exda
endeavour to avoid my enemies; by the former 1 am often ini
beautiful plumage, and the latter are always waging war with tne ft
misdeeds which it is my nature to commit.” To myself, personally, i
im, “ Save me from iny friends, and I will
prisoned for roy grotesque actions and
tr certain pilfering habits and o.ther little
t i* very pleasing that our avi-fauna comprises
so charming a bird; and although I cannot but plead guiltv to Itaviug often raised my gun at this
woodland tenant, I hope to be more sparing in future. Impulsively, however, does every sportsman take his
shot at the Jay, when it deridingly passes over his head in the midst of our great covers. Hundreds are thus
killed during the pheasant-shooting season, and it requires all the craftiness with which the bird is endowed
to keep it out of harm’s way. Of course it finds still less favour with the keeper and the gardener, eggs
and cherries having irresistible charms for its palate.
In the days of Linnaeus, the Crow, the Jay, and the Magpie were all associated under the generic title of
Corvus; but the three birds have since with great propriety been made the types of as many genera, the old
name of Carats being retained for the true Crows, while thafc'of Pica is assigned to the Magpies, and Garrulus
to the vSK Mich a separation is both natural and proper no Ornithologist of the .present day will
attempt fa deny &tructwrwli\ each differs from the other, while at the same time the plumage of all the
s of 1m ii»*-* tonus » strictly in unison, and never partakes of the colouring of either of the
nte aud economy are modified in accordance with their difference of form. Their
u* ■ •■-'o istcTvstrog facts. The members of the genus Corvus are more widely spread
it. *»-*•«* Pies tu»d tbe latter more so than thos&of the genus Garrulus: still the last-mentioned
i v 5p o < :»-* nearly .every part of the northern portion of the Old World; that is, Jays
■he ¡slana of Japan in the east to Ireland in the west, while in North Africa there is one
others. iSj
distributes
than ttiotfe’ :
form has »
are found«
species not
In the A
assigned fa
the true Jm
one, very «m
assigned ‘4s
fauna of I m
cephalus; f
nocephalus,
to Great Bi
*»d South, many representatives of this family occur, but these have been
distinct genera. The following is a tolerably correct list of the species of
the Japanese islands there are two, G. japonicus and G- Brandtii; iu China
mb, tbe G. bispecularis of the Himalaya. To this bird 1 many years since
n tlie Arnoor and the Altai the G. Brandtii occurs, as well as in Japan. The
laris, G. lanceolatus, and G. Lgdihn; Syria and Asia Minor, the G. melano-
rvicalis and G. glandarius; and Europe, the G. glandarius and G. tnela-
throughout tbe whole of the continent, from Spain and the Grecian islands
way. 'Hius we find that, in lieu of the one known to the learned Swede,
than eight species of this particular form,
e may proceed to a more detailed history of one of the most beautiful and
rirst, then, I may state that the Jay is strictly stationary in Great Britain;
0 increased by accessions, from other countries, nor have we any reason
ed here ever leave our islands. Mr. Rodd states that, in Cornwall, it is
id to the westward of Penzance, but that it is common in the woodland
« western point it is very generally distributed over the whole of England
With these pr. 3 ' . -v!w*rk.s, we m;
ornamental of the Hnn-»fe ft-rdf. First
and that its numbers do tuet iqtfMsr to be
to believe that those whn h am bred I
very rare in the neighbourin'»*! raid ft
districts of that county. Kvwm ■ we
and Wales; it is also found in far
Ireland, in which latter country, i trust,
a price was put upon its head, from an
Unlike the Crow, whose structure is ;
powers of the Jay are somewhat restrict«'
but whatever is denied to it in this r
arboreal habits. If we examine the foi
placed on the same plane as the antcri
smaller branches of trees, and hence it
winter it is often solitary, living in the i
less numbers, in the southern and midland counties of Scotland and
u>t,it is now in better favour than in the days of George tbe Second, when
1 ao unfounded imputation that it did injury to young trees.
■ alike adapted for aerial, arboreal, and terrestrial progression, the wing-
re also its powers of progression over the surface of the earth;
is amply compensated by a structure admirably befitting its
is foot, we find its hind toe and claw largely developed, and
i. This hand-like foot is admirably adapted for grasping the
the bird is always found in thick woods and hedgerows. In
>f the most extensive covers, where perchance the only other