[Illustration: THE JAY, (_Garrulus glandarius_,)] IS less than the magpie, and resembles him more in the habits of his life than in the shape and colour of his body. Like him he is talkative, and ready to imitate all sounds, but boasts of ornamental colours, which the magpie is deprived of. The ablest painter can produce no colour to 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 will, and the motion of which is expressive of the internal affections of the bird, whether he is stimulated by fear, anger, or desire. A Jay, kept by a person in the north of England, had learned at the approach of cattle to set a cur dog upon them, by whistling and calling him by his name. One winter, during a severe frost, the dog was by this means excited to attack a cow that was big with calf, when the poor thing fell on the ice, and was much hurt. The Jay was complained of as a nuisance, and its owner was obliged to destroy it. The hen lays five or six eggs, of a dull white colour, mottled with brown. [Illustration: THE ROLLER, (_Coracias garrula_,)] IS about the size of the jay. Its bill is black, sharp, and somewhat hooked. The head is of a dirty green, mingled with blue; of which colour is also the throat, with white lines in the middle of each feather; the breast is of a pale blue, like that of the pigeon; the middle of the back, between the shoulders, is red; the rump and lesser coverts of the wings are dark blue; the feet are short, and, like those of a dove, of a dirty yellow colour. The Roller is wilder than the jay, and frequents the thickest woods; it builds its nest chiefly on birch-trees. It is a bird of passage, and migrates in the months of May and September. In Africa, it is said to fly in large flocks in the autumn, and is frequently seen on cultivated grounds, with rooks and other birds, searching for worms, insects, seeds, berries, roots, and in cases of necessity, small frogs. [Illustration] [Illustration: THE KINGFISHER, (_Alcedo ispida_,)] IS the Halcyon of the ancients, and his name recalls to our mind the most lively ideas. It was believed, that, as long as the female sat upon her eggs, the god of storms and tempests refrained from disturbing the calmness of the waves, and _Halcyon days_ were, for navigators of old, the most secure times to perform their voyages: “As firm as the rock, and as calm as the flood, Where the peace-loving Halcyon deposits her brood.” But although this bears analogy to a natural coincidence between the time of breeding assigned to the Kingfishers and a part of the year when the ocean is less tempestuous, yet Mythology would exercise her fancy, and turn into wonders that which was nothing else than the common course of nature.