NORTHERN BLUE JAY 45 



ning itself. He says: "I have been amused lately in watching them 

 sunning themselves on my lawn, even on the hottest days. Usually 

 the bird turns over on one side, with its breast toward the sun and the 

 upper wing partially raised, so as to let the sun in on its under plumage, 

 remaining in this position for several minutes. At other times it lies 

 prone on the ground, breast down, with both wings widely spread, so 

 as to sun the wings." 



Henry C. Denslow sent to Mr. Bent a record of a banded blue jay 

 that lived for 15 years. Other banded individuals have been recorded 

 as 9, 11, and 13 years old. 



The jay's tendency to pester owls and hawks is one of its best-known 

 habits. If a jay comes upon an owl hidden in the daytime, he sets up 

 an outcry to which all the jays within hearing respond, and, collecting 

 in a screaming mob, they drive the owl from tree to tree. It is some- 

 times to our advantage to follow up such a gathering when their voices 

 rise to the high pitch of anger, for the jays may have found a rare bird. 



In regard to the jay's habit of storing food for future use, Bendire 

 (1895) says: "Where they are resident they lay up quite a store of 

 acorns, corn, and nuts in various places for winter use, but where 

 they are only summer visitors they do not resort to this practice." 



Dwight W. Huntington (MS.) reports the following observation: 

 "I had many small pheasants running at large in my gardens, and one 

 day a blue jay lit on a small tree just above a bantam with a brood of 

 golden pheasants. He evidently had his eye on the little birds, and the 

 bantam led them away. The jay followed, lit in another tree, and this 

 was repeated se^'eral times until, much to my surprise, he struck at the 

 little birds just as a hawk does. The bantam flew up at him as he came 

 down. The birds came together, and a fight was on. Blue feathers 

 and black from the bantam soon covered the ground. The bantam won, 

 and, seeing that the jay was dead, she proudly led her little brood away. 

 I was dumbfounded and amazed at what I had seen and called a game- 

 keeper to come and see the dead jay and the feathers scattered about." 



Voice. — It is the blue jay's voice, more than his gay color, that makes 

 him conspicuous. We cannot be long in the open air before we hear 

 him — in woodland, in open country, in the suburbs of our large cities. 

 At the least alarm he begins to shout, and often, with no apparent cause, 

 even a lone bird will break out, like a schoolboy, it seems, out of pure 

 joy in making a noise. Especially in autumn the jays shout so loudly 

 that they fill all outdoors with sound. 



The note we hear oftenest is a loud, clear cry often written jay or jeer, 

 well within the range of human whistling and readily imitated by the 

 human voice. Peer or beer, with no r sound, is perhaps a closer render- 



