152 SONG OF THE REDPOLE. 
if he had been reared and tamed in a shanty; 
hopping round on the look-out for crumbs, he 
slants his head, and looks so beseechingly with 
his glittering grey eyes, that he must have a 
hard cruel heart who could refuse such an appeal 
for a stray morsel, or injure trustful little jack. 
Indian children are their greatest enemies; they 
never wilfully kill them, but teaze the poor little 
fellows, until they die from sheer worry. 
This jay has an immense distribution, extend- 
mg from Vancouver Island through British 
Columbia, crossing the Rocky Mountains, and 
ranging down the eastern slopes into Canada ; it 
is found also throughout the Northern United 
States. Its nest is, much like that of other jays, 
built generally in a close bush. Four to seven 
eggs are the usual number laid. They winter 
throughout British Columbia and in Vancouver 
Island. 
Lesser Reppote (giothus linaria, Ca- 
banis).—Rather a rare bird in British Columbia; 
it frequents swampy places, where the alders grow 
thickly, and large hollow-stalked water-plants 
flourish. To these it clings, and swinging, as if 
performing a trapeze feat, pecks away at the seed- 
pods, and searching the flowers if there are any 
remaining, gobbles up any beetles that may have 
