NORTHERN BLUE JAY 43 



spirited behavior, jays seldom seem to be in a hurry ; we never see them 

 move with that intensely rapid, flashHke speed which is characteristic 

 of many birds. 



Nowadays we regard the blue jay as rather a tame bird — almost as 

 tame as the robin — but Witmer Stone (1926) states that in German- 

 tov/n. Pa., the bird's habits have changed in the last 3 or 4 decades. 

 He says: "When studying birds in Wister's woods and vicinity from 

 1880 to 1897, the Blue Jay was a very wild species occurring only dur- 

 ing autumn flights, but upon returning to reside in the old neighborhood 

 after some thirty-five years absence I found the bird's habits totally 

 changed. I was surprised to find a pair of Jays present about the end 

 of May, 1922, acting as if they were located for the summer. Later, I 

 detected them constructing a nest in a beech tree close to the railroad 

 station about ten feet above a path along which hundreds of persons 

 passed to and from the trains, and not over fifty feet from the tracks." 



On the other hand, Nathan Clifford Brown (1879), writing of 

 Coosada, Ala., says that the blue jay is a "very common resident, and, 

 to one who has known the species only at the North, remarkably tame. 

 I observed them feeding in the streets of Montgomery, and unsuspi- 

 ciously flying about much after the manner of the domestic pigeons of 

 Northern cities." 



Individual jays react differently in the presence of man. Wilbur F. 

 Smith (1905) gives an instance of remarkable tameness in a sitting 

 bird. He says: 



To those knowing the Blue Jay only as a wild, shy bird of the tree-tops, so 

 hard to approach, or, by reputation, as a thief or a robber of other birds' nests, 

 there remains a pleasure like unto finding some new and rare bird, to watch a 

 pair of Jays through the nesting season and to find them so devoted to their 

 nest and young that they lose much of their shyness and allow a familiarity which 

 very few other birds will tolerate. One pair of Jays built for several years in 

 a tangle of briers near my home, and the female became so tame, through constant 

 visiting, that I could at last spread her wings and tail-feathers without her leaving 

 the nest, and even stroke her back with no further sign of disapproval than a 

 settling lower in the nest and a parting of the bill. 



Mrs. Harriet Carpenter Thayer (1901) says of a pair which nested 

 in her garden : "The Jays were not at all shy, but on the contrary were 

 very valiant and determined in standing by their home. Soon after the 

 eggs were laid, the house-painters began work opposite the nest, and 

 many sharp pecks they received on their ears and backs." 



In its relation to small birds, consensus classes the blue jay as an 

 outlaw and robber. Bendire (1895) says: 



Few of our native birds compare in beauty of plumage and general bearing with 

 the Blue Jay, and while one can not help admiring him on account of his amusing 



