Next to the chough the jay comes nearest to the daw mentally of all ourcrows, and as he excels most of our ferocious birds in beauty he wouldnaturally have been a first favourite as a pet but for the fact that itis only in a state of nature in which he is like the daw--lively,clever, impish; in captivity he is more like the magpie and affiliateseven less than that bird with his human associates. In confinement he isa quiet, almost sedate, certainly a silent bird: He is essentially awoodland species; all his graces, his various, occasionally musical, language,with many imitations of bird and animal sounds, and his spectaculargames and beautiful wing displays, are for his own people exclusively. Hemust have his liberty in the woods and a company of his fellow-jays toexhibit his full lustre.

The difference between jay and daw is similar to that between fox anddog; or rather let us say, between one of the little desert foxes ofSyria and Egypt--the fennec, for instance--and the jackal, the domesticdog's progenitor; the first gifted with exquisite grace and beauty, wastoo highly specialized to suit the domestic condition; hence thegeneralized un-beautiful beast was chosen to be man's servant andcompanion. In the same way it looks as if we were taking to the daw inpreference to the more beautiful bird because he is more like us, orunderstands us much better, or adapts himself more readily to our way oflife.