2l8 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



chievous, destructive, thieving traits of the Crow, 

 and with a lot of audacity or ' cheek ' thrown in 

 for good measure." 



There can be no doubt that he is a persistent 

 and merciless nest-robber — that he eats the 

 eggs and kills and devours the young of smaller 

 and defenseless birds. Eloquent testimony con- 

 cerning the commission of these crimes is fur- 

 nished by the outcry set up by such birds, when- 

 ever they catch a Jay lurking near their nests. 

 But we need not take the birds' word alone for it, 

 because he has been caught red-handed by man, 

 more than once, in the very perpetration of these 

 villainies. 



Courtt sy of S. A. Luttndgc 

 BLUE JAY 

 An amusing rascal 



Yet even those who know and condemn the 

 ways of Jays, are forced to admit that he is an 

 amusing rascal. In the nesting season he is 

 comparatively little in evidence, not only because 

 he has his own family affairs to attend to. but 

 because he devotes a good deal of his time to his 

 cannibalistic practices, concerning which he is 

 anxious to keep the rest of the feathered world 

 in ignorance. But once his family responsibili- 

 ties are discharged, and there are no more nests 

 to be robbed, his whole demeanor changes, and 

 he becomes the noisiest and most obstreperous 

 creature in the woods. 



" Here comes a tool with a gun ; look out for 

 him!" he yells, as you enter the woods, said Mr. 

 Torrey ; and all the rest of his brethren promptly 

 take up the hue and cry. And let anybody who 

 supposes that Jays can't swear, and employ the 

 most variegated vilification and the most fluent 

 Billingsgate, just stand by and listen to the male- 

 dictions of a flock of them as they mob their 

 arch-enemy, the Great Horned Owl. 



That the Jay has a sense of humor — which is 

 not common among our birds — also seems very 

 obvious. Often it is humor of the grim kind, but 

 not always, as will be appreciated by those who 

 have read " Baker's Blue Jay Story," in Mark 

 Twain's Tramp Abroad. Here we have a most 

 amusing yarn about how a Jay tried to fill up 

 a deserted cabin with acorns ; how he worked 

 and swore as the nuts disappeared through the 

 knot-hole in the roof ; how one of the flock of 

 Jays who had been attracted by his " devotions," 

 discovered what he had been trying to do. by 

 looking in through the open door, and promjjtly 

 had a spasm ; how the other Jays took a look, 

 one by one, with the same result, and how the 

 whole flock then sat around in the trees and 

 guffawed over the joke — all of this is not merely 

 amusing ; it is good ornithology in so far as it 

 reports the way a Jay acts. 



James Whitcomb Riley also sketched him 

 accurately when he said (in "Knee Deep in 

 June ") 



Mr. Blue Jay, full o' sass, 



In them base-ball clothes of his, 



Sportin' round the orchard jes' 

 Like he owned the premises. 



Incidentally it ought to be recorded that the 

 Jay's kleptomaniacal and hiding propensities 

 serve a useful purpose, for they prompt him to 

 carry away and conceal acorns and chestnuts 

 under leaves and in the grass and in hollow 

 trees, with the result that when a forest of coni- 

 fers is cut away, chestnuts and oaks are likely 

 to appear from the nuts which have been hidden 

 by these birds — and the squirrels. This service, 

 unconscious though it be. ought not to be ignored, 

 even as we reflect, when we remember the bois- 

 terous good nature and the clown-like ways of 

 the Jay, that a bird, as well as a man, may 

 " smile and smile and be a villain still." 



" That a Blue Jay ! Nonsense ! " many people 

 exclaim, when told that a very melodious, bell- 

 like note coming from a thicket is one of the 

 calls of a bird whose sole vocal accomplishment, 

 as far as they know, is his harsh cry of Thief, 

 thief! But he frequently soimds this note and 



