102 



()UNITJIOLO(;iST 



[\'<)1. 10- Nil. 7 



could pass by the house without gettiiiR a 

 scokling. No one couUl step out of their 

 house in the immediate vicinity witlmut 

 getting a scolding. When we came to our 

 homes from "down town" we were met at 

 the southeast corner of tlie block and escorted 

 to our very doors, a stranger never being 

 noticed. The writer used often to stop and 

 parley with these birds, who wei-e always sure 

 to escort him from one end of the block to 

 his very door at tlu^ opposite end. 



After the eggs were hatched the attentions 

 of the parent birds to the neighbors became 

 much more marked. Not infrequently I 

 would get a thump over the head as I passed 

 by on the sidewalk, my hat preventing any 

 injury, however. I often amused myself by 

 scolding back. As the little birds grew the 

 parents became more and more savage, and 

 soon became a serious nuisance. Often the 

 wrath and indignation as well as a torrent of ex- 

 pletives such as the Irish can only pour forth, 

 would be roused up, as my neighbor would 

 get a blow over the head or in the face. I tell 

 you she soon ceased to call them pet names. 

 These blows would usually come very unex- 

 pectedly, often startling my neighbor out of 

 her wits, which only made her the madder, 

 something plainly manifested by the rapid 

 action of her tongue. One day she had a 

 visitor, another elderly neighbor woman well 

 known to the liirds. This visitor was stand- 

 ing upon the walk in front of the house wlien 

 suddenly one of these birds pounced down 

 upon her head, striking with its bill with 

 such force that it not only penetrated the 

 woman's sun bonnet but made a painful 

 wound in the top of her head. .So it is no won- 

 der that these birds had the hearty dislike of 

 the whole neighborhood, and that we hurried 

 them away as soon as the Utile ones could tly 

 at all well. 



Each season since this same pair has en- 

 deavored to build in the same spot, but every 

 time they do so my neighbor indignantly tears 

 down every vestige of a nest an<l forcibly and 

 energetically drives them away. She is Irish, 

 but in this case practises eviction with a 

 vengeance. She cares no more for the " poor 

 craythers." And none of ns ever care to have 

 any further experience with a family of Blue 

 Jays. One sununer with such a family is 

 sufficient. 



Human being.s were not the only sufferers, 

 but robins and othei favorites, ev(!n cats, not in- 

 frequently getting a lively whipping. The 

 Blue .lay is beautiful, intelligent .and very 



bravo, but he is an ac(inaintane<^ I would pre- 

 fer to keep a good ways off. 



Wilfri'd A. liriithcrtim. 

 Kochostor, Mioh. 



Stake-driver's" Nest. 



Several lads of ovir neighborhood were once 

 making collections of birds' eggs, and trying 

 with zeal to add new varieties to our cabiiu'ts 

 and, it must be confessed, trying even harder 

 to outdo each other. For some grave offense 

 against the unwritten law of our company I 

 contrived for the ofTender a novel punishment, 

 which, if it failed to work as I intended, was 

 still a success in another way. Finding in the 

 barn two hen's eggs of strange size and color 

 and much alike in appearance, I took them to 

 a swamp near by, and, taxing my ingenuity, 

 made on an island of sedge-grass a nest which, 

 I flattered myself, would hardly be told from 

 the nest of some large water-bird. Placing 

 the eggs carefully in the nest I left the place, 

 knowing that the y(unig criminal whom I 

 wished to piuiisli would soon explore the 

 marsh for eggs, and that he would be com- 

 pletely hoodwinked as to the identity of the 

 strange nest. Immoderate bragging, I was 

 sure, would follow its discovery, and I 

 chuckled over the fall his pride would have 

 when he learned the authorship of his rare 

 "find." 



As luck would have it the culpiit failed to 

 discover the nest, but a scicntillc young ocilo- 

 gist, Mr. A., ran across it soon after and, alive 

 to the importance of the discovery, skulked 

 about the vicinity in hope of shooting the 

 parent bird. But day after day passed and 

 the bird failed to put in its appearance, nor 

 did the number of eggs receive any addition. 



At last, fearing that some one would blunder 

 on to the nest, Mr. A. carefully measured it, 

 and took full notes of its material and con- 

 struction. IJemoving the eggs, with great 

 jiainstaking he "blew" them by means of 

 drill and blow-pipe, and with his calipers took 

 accurate measurements of each. Then he 

 attacked his big ornithologies, and after Imurs 

 of study .and comparison joyously pronounced 

 tlieni a fine "set" of the Amc^riinn Bittern, 

 the "stake-driver" of all boys. 



Bittern's eggs, you must know, are quite 

 rare, and we beard at once of Mr. A.'s new 

 oological acquisitions, but as I was a hid of 

 (deven and the learned gentleman ten ^ears 



