86 



Bird - Lore 



went off. I then went out to see just what 

 he had done. There were several places 

 where he had exposed the tunnels from 

 one to two and a half inches. At the place 

 where one went deeper he had enlarged it 

 with his bill and the ants were again com- 

 ing out in what he would, I suppose, con- 

 sider paying numbers. — Garrett New- 

 kirk, Pasadena, CaliJ. 



A Friendly Blue Jay 



This is a true story of a Blue Jay. About 

 the middle of September a wounded Blue 

 Jay appeared at my farm at Bedford Hills, 

 New York. One leg was broken, a wing 

 was bruised, and its condition was alto- 

 gether forlorn. John, a member of the 

 household, took pity on him, bound up 

 the broken leg with adhesive plaster and 

 gave the bird comfort in many waj's. The 

 Blue Jay rewarded these friendly minis- 

 trations with the most extravagant evi- 

 dences of gratitude and affection. It 

 followed John about his work, remained 

 with him nearly all day and spent the night 

 in John's room. If John took a walk, the 

 bird kept him in sight, flj'ing from tree to 

 tree, and would come home perched on 

 John's shoulder or his cap. Although 

 demonstrating its attachment to its friend, 

 it did not like to be touched and reluctantly 

 allowed itself to be caught by the object 

 of its affections. 



When John was laid up for some days 

 with a slight ailment, the bird became more 

 assiduous in its attentions to its bene- 

 factor. It hardly left the sick chamber, 

 spending the night perched on John's 

 toes or near his head picking off any stray 

 fly that presented itself. If John gave it 

 some food, the bird would hide it after the 

 way of its kind, perhaps placing it in a 

 corner of the room under a newspai)ir or 

 other object and from time to time lifting 

 the edge of the cover to see if its treasure 

 was safe. The strangest jiart of this strange 

 love-making was the lilue Jay's call to 

 John in the morning. It would insert its 

 beak between John's lips and waken him 

 by tapping gently upon his teeth. For 

 weeks this curious affair went on. The bird 



was perfectly free. The windows were 

 open and it came and went at will. 

 Occasionally the bird betrayed the ma- 

 rauding instincts of its race by snatching 

 some glittering object and hiding it, but 

 commonly its behavior was most domestic. 

 After the bird had been a guest of our 

 house for six or seven weeks, the time came 

 for the family to move to the city. Fear- 

 ing that the wild bird would injure itself 

 against the wires if confined in a cage, a 

 band box was prepared with slits for 

 ventilation, and in that the bird made the 

 journey. John kept his visitor shut up for 

 a week or ten days until it should be 

 accustomed to its new surroundings. But 

 the time came when humanity demanded 

 freedom for the bird and the top of the box 

 was removed. The emancipated Blue Jay 

 made for the open window and has never 

 been seen since. Whether it became be- 

 wildered and lost its way, or came to grief, 

 or felt it had paid its debt to civilization 

 we never shall know. John, who never had 

 a bird friend before, is heart-broken and 

 ' I'ou-i Pou-i' has left a household of mourn- 

 ers. — Henry yi arc^v .\'SD,\Vashi ii gton ,D. C. 



Evening Grosbeak Nesting 

 in Wisconsin 



This past summer while at ni)- cottage 

 on the shores of Lake Superior, between 

 Washburn and Bayfield, Wis., one cold 

 day the middle of August my attention was 

 attracted by a peculiar metallic bird-note, 

 "like the creaking of a rusty barn-door 

 hinge," which I at once took for the call- 

 note of a Rose-breasted Grosbeak. Imagine 

 my astonishment when I discovered a 

 whole family of Evening Grosbeaks, a 

 male, female and three young birds, feed- 

 ing on the half-rijic fruit of an elderberry 

 which grew dose to our living-room 

 window. There could be no mistake about 

 their identity, for wc were within ten feet 

 of them an<l had ample time to observe 

 their actions. Though the young were 

 well able to feed themselves, and did, 

 now and then one of the parent birds 

 would pluck a berry and thrust it into the 

 open beak of a young one; then the whole 



