210 FROM BLOMIDON TO SMOKY. 



There are some birds of deservedly bad repute 

 who wear an attractive exterior and maintain 

 jaunty manners. The blue jay, for instance, 

 though somewhat flashy in his dress and loud in 

 his voice, passes with the unsuspecting as a bird 

 worthy of confidence, if not of admiration. Yet 

 if ever there was a scoundrel in feathers, he 

 is one. He is my ideal pickpocket, shoplifter, 

 smuggler, and confidence man. Most people 

 think his cousin, the crow, an undoubted villain ; 

 yet he is considerably better off in morals than 

 his gayly dressed relative. This is not saying 

 that the crow is not a blackleg. 



Among men, the class usually victimized by 

 rogues is that which is dressed and fed well, and 

 luxuriously housed. There is such a class among 

 birds, as the rogues rejoice to know. The war- 

 blers toil little, talk much, live well, dress gayly, 

 — always a la mode^ — and dwell in elaborate 

 and beautiful houses. Redstarts, yellow-rumps, 

 black-polls, and bay-breasteds make elaborate 

 changes in their costumes. The parula lives in 

 the most dainty of simimer houses. The Cana- 

 dian warbler wears a necklace of black pearls. 

 The Maryland yellow-throat goes to a masque 

 ball in a black domino every night in the season. 

 There is nothing solemn or melancholy to these 

 light-hearted, frivolous little birds. No sooner 

 is there a chill in the air, a breath of something 



