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<div style="direction:ltr; font-family:Tahoma; color:#000000; font-size:10pt">I think that MEF has something here. We used to get jays in our garden when I was a boy, but I can't have seen one in 40, probably 50 years. Nevertheless I remember them as a flash
of multicoloured vivacity, like a dragonfly with the colours shifting in the sun with the movement. It's easy to single out individual colours in the RSPB illustrations, but less so when one is dancing about in front of you. And Scrope Purvis doesn't think
that their <i>call</i> is light and vivacious, does he? On the other hand, I do find the "light" a bit odd, as my recollection is that they are a relatively large bird - bigger than a European blackbird or thrush.<br>
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A collocation that comes to mind is "chattering jay" - they are, again as I recall, very vocal birds. But flashy and a bit coarse perhaps - not how I imagine Clarissa!<br>
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Jeremy H<br>
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<div id="divRpF103544" style="direction:ltr"><font color="#000000" face="Tahoma" size="2"><b>From:</b> vwoolf-bounces+jeremy.hawthorn=ntnu.no@lists.service.ohio-state.edu [vwoolf-bounces+jeremy.hawthorn=ntnu.no@lists.service.ohio-state.edu] on behalf of Mary
Ellen Foley [mefoleyuk@gmail.com]<br>
<b>Sent:</b> 17 September 2013 18:26<br>
<b>To:</b> Stuart N. Clarke<br>
<b>Cc:</b> woolf list<br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [Vwoolf] Still on the early pages<br>
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<div><font><span style="line-height:normal">Jays are particoloured, though, sort if harlequin-ish, maybe...perhaps that contributes to an air of frivolity, he thinks?</span></font>
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<div><font><span style="line-height:normal">I read up about jays a few years ago when we had them in our garden. To someone who hasn't seen one before, they're really striking. It may be that their habit of buryng acorns, as squirrels do, is what populated
England with oaks, back in the mists of time.</span></font></div>
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<div><font><span style="line-height:normal">I grew up with the American blue jay, and then in California became accustomed to the Steller's jay. (<a href="http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/blue_jay/id" target="_blank">http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/blue_jay/id</a>
-- scroll down for photos; then on the right of the photos, under Similar Species, scroll once for the Steller's jay.the American blue jay is ghe prettiest, sez me.)</span></font></div>
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<div><font><span style="line-height:normal">You don't have to be a birdwatcher --which is good, because I'm not one -- to be interested n them, as jays seem to demand that you notice them. They take center stage. Maybe there's a bit of that about Clarissa,
he thinks?</span></font></div>
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<div><font><span style="line-height:normal">And as for blue-green, well, maybe Scropes isn't very observant, thinks the blue patches on jays are iridescent or something?</span></font></div>
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<div><font><span style="line-height:normal">(Sitting in Egypt years ago , not long married and in awe of my in-laws, who are archaeologists, I was helping my mother-in-law with something on a dig when she remarked on an amazingly green insect hoverng near us.
What I saw was an almost unbelievably bright blue insect, but one doesn't tell one's new mother-in-law that's she's gone potty. She went on about it being just the same green as their old pickup truck, which I'd seen, so it was clear she really did believe it
was green, so I mumbled something. And it moved, and became green from my angle, and blue from hers, and we realized what was going on. Amazing, really.)</span></font></div>
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<div><font><span style="line-height:normal">mef<br>
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On Tuesday, September 17, 2013, Stuart N. Clarke wrote:<br>
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<div>Why does Scrope Purvis think Mrs D to be “a charming woman ... a touch of the bird about her, of the jay, blue-green, light, vivacious ...”?</div>
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<div>Jays are *not* blue-green:</div>
<div><a title="http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/j/jay/index.aspx" href="http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/j/jay/index.aspx" target="_blank">http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/j/jay/index.aspx</a></div>
<div>And, for that matter, there’s nothing charming, light or vivacious about their call.</div>
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<div>Stuart</div>
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<br>
On Tuesday, September 17, 2013, Stuart N. Clarke wrote:<br>
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<div>Why does Scrope Purvis think Mrs D to be “a charming woman ... a touch of the bird about her, of the jay, blue-green, light, vivacious ...”?</div>
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<div>Jays are *not* blue-green:</div>
<div><a title="http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/j/jay/index.aspx" href="http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/j/jay/index.aspx" target="_blank">http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/j/jay/index.aspx</a></div>
<div>And, for that matter, there’s nothing charming, light or vivacious about their call.</div>
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<div>Stuart</div>
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