1. The jay changes its voice frequently, for it utters a different one,
as we may say, almost every day; it lays about nine eggs; it makes its
nest upon trees, of hair and wool; when the acorns fall, it conceals
and stores them up. Many persons have reported that the stork is fed
by its young, and some people say the merops also, and that they are
fed by the young, not only in their old age, but as soon as the young
birds are able to do so, and that the parents remain within the nest;
in appearance, this bird is green beneath the wings, and blue above, as
the kingfisher, and its wings are red at the extremity. It lays six or
seven eggs in the autumn, in muddy caverns, and digs as much as four
cubits into the ground.
2. The bird called chloris from being yellow beneath, is of the size of
the lark, and lays four or five eggs; it makes its nest of symphytum,
which it pulls up by the root, and lines it with straw, hair, and
wool. The blackbird and jay do the same, and line their nests with
the same materials; the nest of the acanthyllis is also artfully
constructed, for it is folded together like a ball of flax, and has a
small entrance. And the natives of those places say that there is a
cinnamon bird, and that they bring the cinnamon from the same places
as the bird, and that it makes its nest of it. It builds its nest in
lofty trees and among their branches, but the natives of the country
tip their arrows with lead, with which they destroy the nests, and then
pick out the cinnamon from the other material.