[Three Hundred Animals Contents]
IS less than the magpie, and resembles him more in the habits of his life, than in the shape and colour of his body. Talkative, and ready to imitate all sounds, as is the former, yet he can boast of ornamental colours, which the magpie is deprived of. Nothing can, on the pallet of the ablest painter, equal the brightness of the chequered tablets of white, black, and blue, which adorn the sides of his wings. His head is covered with feathers, which are moveable at his will; and their motion is expressive of the internal affections of the bird, whether he is stimulated by fear, anger, or desire. The fable of the Gracculus, who plumed himself with the spoils of the peacock, is better applied to the jack daw than to the Jay, as this has been sufficiently favoured by nature, with regard to beauty of plumage. The hen lays five or six eggs, of a dull white colour, mottled with brown.
