prefers the shelter and security of thick coverts, never frequenting
the open country, and rarely seen on the ground
unless beneath trees or bushes, where it finds its chief
sustenance, which consists for the greater part of the year of
worms, insects and slugs, such kinds of berries or fruit as
are in season, and especially nuts, beech-mast and acorns.
These last it frequently stores in chinks of the bark of
trees, hides under fallen leaves, or buries in the earth, not,
as has often been said, in hoards, but separately, as convenience
or fancy may direct. Generally shy and wary in
summer, tempted by cherries, strawberries, plums and pease,
it boldly makes inroads into our orchards and gardens, and
unquestionably will, if permitted, devour or carry off no small
portion of the crops; but, in most cases, the plunder can
be prevented by nets, or where the ground is too extensive
for their use, the marauders can generally be kept off by a
few gunshots, though should they still persist in their
depredations the death of two or three and the exposure of
their bodies will effectually stop the visits of the survivors.
However, the most serious charge brought against the Jay
is that of rifling the nests of other birds, and, though the
extent of its egg-sucking and chick-killing propensity is
doubtless greatly exaggerated, its effect is to make an
enemy of every gamekeeper, and no mercy is shewn to the
race, recourse being had to any device that will lessen its
numbers, as the dismal array of decaying carcases that disfigures
many a pleasing glade testifies. Consequently in
many parts of the country the Jay has been almost extirpated,
and were it not for its wandering disposition and its
extraordinary caution during the breeding-season, it would
soon cease to exist in England. Noisy as.is the bird in
autumn and winter, when spring draws on it becomes almost
silent, and the detection of its presence by any sound it may
utter is then almost impossible, so that a pair of Jays or
more may take up their abode even in a moderately small
wood or plantation without their presence being suspected
by any save the most attentive observer. The appearance of
a Fox or Cat, however, dispels this cautious behaviour and
produces for a time a scolding outcry the meaning of which
is unmistakable to those who are alive to country-sounds.
The Jay seldom builds its nest above twenty feet from the
ground, preferring tall coppice or a hush in a high hedgerow,
while occasionally one of the lower branches of a large
tree, if sufficiently leafy to afford concealment will he chosen.
The nest is cup-shaped, open at the top, consisting of a large
platform of short sticks and twigs, thickly lined with fine
roots very neatly interwoven and sometimes intermixed with
a few grasses.* Towards the end of March or early in April
the hen lays from four to seven eggs of a greenish-white, so
closely minutely and thickly freckled all over as to seem
suffused with light olive, and almost presenting the appearance
of gigantic eggs of the Sedge-Warbler; but the markings
are sometimes gathered into a zone. They measure from
1"33 to 1*16 by from *95 to ’85 in.
The young follow their parents for some weeks after
leaving the nest, hut subsequently their practice varies
greatly in different localities, depending doubtless on the
supply of food obtainable. In certain districts the family
party will keep together for the greater part of the winter,
but most generally the young seem to quit the place of their
birth, and to form small hands which wander to and fro
throughout the autumn and winter. In the fall of the year
this country, and especially its eastern parts, is commonly
visited by a large number of Jays which have probably been
bred abroad, and from them our stock is very likely replenished.
Sheppard and Whitear have recorded an observation
of the arrival at this season near the coast of Suffolk of a
flight of Jays, consisting of some thousands, hut the incident
on so large a scale must be regarded as out of the common way.
Brought up from the nest, Jays soon become very tame
and are amusing captives, thriving best on a mixed diet,
though preferring animal food. In addition to their natural
harsh screech, which, so “ discordant, heard alone,” always
brings pleasure to the ear of a true naturalist, they speedily
learn many other notes, and indeed there is scarcely any
* The nest has been found in the hole of a tree {Journ. f. Orn. 1861, p. 470.)