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JAY (Fr. geai)
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See also:JAY (Fr. geai) , a well-known and very beautiful See also:European See also:bird, the See also:Corvus glandarius of See also:Linnaeus, the Garrulus glandarius of See also:modern ornithologists. To this See also:species are • more or less closely allied numerous birds inhabiting the Palaearctic and See also:Indian regions, as well as the greater See also:part of See also:America, but not occurring in the See also:Antilles, in the See also:southern portion of the Neotropical Region, or in the Ethiopian or Australian. All these birds are commonly called jays, and See also:form a See also:group of the crows or Corvidae, which may fairly be considered a sub-See also:family, Garrulinae. Indeed there are, or have been, systematists who would elevate the jays to the See also:rank of a family Garrulidae—a proceeding which seems unnecessary. Some of them have an unquestionable resemblance to the pies, if the group now known by that name can be satisfactorily severed from the true Corrinae. In structure the jays are not readily differentiated from the pies; but in See also:habit they are much more arboreal, delighting in thick coverts, seldom appearing in the open, and seeking their See also:food on or under trees. They seem also never to walk or run when on the ground, but always to See also:hop. The See also:body-feathers are commonly loose and soft; and, gaily coloured as are most of the species, in few of them has the plumage the metallic glossiness it generally presents in the pies, while the proverbial beauty of the " jay's wing " is due to the vivid tints of See also:blue—See also:turquoise and See also:cobalt, heightened by bars of See also:jet-See also:black, an indication of the same See also:style of See also:ornament being observable in the greater number of the other forms of the group, and in some predominating over nearly the whole See also:surface. Of the many genera that have been proposed by ornithologists, perhaps about nine may be deemed sufficiently well established. The See also:ordinary European jay, Garrulus glandarius (fig. I), has suffered so much persecution in the See also:British Islands as to have become in many districts a rare bird. In See also:Ireland it seems now to be indigenous to the southern See also:half of the See also:island only; in See also:England generally, it is far less numerous than formerly; and in See also:Scotland its See also:numbers have decreased with still greater rapidity. There is little doubt that it would have been exterminated but for its stock being supplied in autumn by See also:immigration, and for its shy and wary behaviour, especially at the breeding-See also:season, when it becomes almost wholly See also:mute, and thereby often escapes detection. No truthful See also:man, however much he may love the bird, will gainsay the depredations on See also:fruit and eggs that it at times commits; but the gardeners and gamekeepers of See also:Britain, instead of taking a few See also:Simple steps to guard their See also:charge from injury, deliberately adopt methods of wholesale destruction—methods that in the See also:case of this species are only too easy and too effectual—by proffering temptation to trespass which it is not in jay-nature to resist, and accordingly the bird runs See also:great See also:chance of See also:total extirpation. Notwithstanding the See also:war carried on against the jay, its varied cries and active gesticulations show it to be a sprightly bird, and at a distance that renders its beauty-spots invisible, it is yet rendered conspicuous by its See also:cinnamon-coloured See also:Cody and pure See also: Leaving the true jays of the genus Garrulus, it is expedient next to consider those of a group named, in 1831, Perisoreus by See also:Prince C. L. See also:Bonaparte (Saggio, &c., Anim. Vertebrati, p. 43) and Dysornithia by Swainson (F. B.-Americana, ii. 495).2 This group contains two species—one the Lanius infaustus of Linnaeus and the Siberian jay of See also:English writers, which ranges throughout the See also:pine-forests of the See also:north of Europe and Asia, and the second the Corvus canadensis of the same author, or See also:Canada jay, occupying a similar station in America. The so-called Siberian jay is one of the most entertaining birds in the See also:world. Its versatile cries and actions, as seen and heard by those who penetrate the solitude of the See also:northern forests it inhabits, can never be forgotten by one who has had experience of them, any more than the pleasing sight of its See also:rust-coloured tail, which an occasional gleam of See also:sunshine will light up into a brilliancy quite unexpected by those who have only surveyed the bird's otherwise gloomya See also:appearance in the See also:glass-case of a museum. It seems scarcely to know fear, obtruding itself on the See also:notice of any traveller who invades its haunts, and, shoul4 he See also:halt, making it-self at once a See also:denizen of his See also:bivouac. In confinement it speedily becomes friendly, but suit-able food for it is not easily found. Linnaeus seems to have been under a misapprehension when he applied to it the trivial epithet it bears; for by none of his countrymen is it deemed an unlucky bird, but rather the See also:reverse. In fact, no one can listen to the cheery See also:sound of its ordinary calls with any but a hopeful feeling. The Canada jay, or " See also:whisky-See also:jack " (the corruption probably of a See also:Cree name), seems to be of a similar nature, but it presents a still more sombre coloration, its nestling plumage,3 indeed, being thoroughly corvine in appearance and suggestive of its being a pristine form.
As though to make amends for the dull plumage of the species last mentioned, North America offers some of the most brilliantly
1 Further See also:information will possibly show that these districts are not occupied at the same season of the See also:year by the two forms.
2 See also:Recent writers have preferred the former name, though it was only used sub-generically by its author, who assigned to it no characters, which the inventor of the latter was careful to do, regarding it at the same See also:time as a genus.
3 In this it was described and figured (F. B. Americana, ii. 296, pl. 55) as a distinct species, G. brachyrhynchus.
coloured of the sub-family, and the common blue jays of Canada and the eastern states of the See also:Union, Cyanurus cristatus (fig. 2), is one of the most conspicuous birds of the Transatlantic See also:woods. The See also:account of its habits by See also: In this bird and its many allied forms, coloration, though almost confined to various tints of blue, seems to reach its See also:climax, but want of space forbids more particular notice of them, or of the members of the other genera Cyanocitta, Cyanocorax, Xanthura, Psilorhinus, and more, which inhabit various parts of the Western See also:continent. It remains, however, to mention the genus Cissa, including many beautiful forms belonging to the Indian region, and among them the C. speciosa and C. sinensis, so often represented in See also:Oriental drawings, though doubts may be ex-pressed whether these birds are not more nearly related to the pies than to the jays. (A. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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