130 GRAY LADY AND THE BIRDS 
would learn, at least in some regions, to inhabit places 
where mice and other harmful rodents and bugs are 
more plentiful than song-birds. 
“Then in the winter we of the Kind Hearts’ Club can 
make up for this seeming unkindness, and pay them for 
the real good they do by feeding them through the hungry 
time, when nuts, berries, and even frozen apples are not 
to be found.” 
“What is a Blue Jay’s nest like? I don’t think I’ve 
ever seen one,’”’ asked Tommy Todd. 
“Jtis not very easy to find, for they usually build rather 
high up, in a place where the limb is crotched and has 
many small branches. The nest itself is well made of 
fibres and roots, and is usually quite cleverly hidden, and 
the eggs are dull green, very thickly spotted. 
“ Aside from the Jay’s unaccountable cannibal habit of 
egg and squab hunting, he has many good qualities, both 
as a parent and a friend to those of his own kind, and 
though his call is harsh, and, like the creaking of the 
Grackles, a reminder of coming frosts and bare trees, in 
spring he has some pretty melodious notes and another 
call totally different from the harsh jay, jay. This ery 
is like the resonant striking of two bits of metal, a clink 
without exactly the ring that a bell has,—yet I call it the 
“bell note,” though perhaps the double sound produced 
by hammer and anvil is a better comparison. 
“In the fall, however, the Jay’s voice is certainly harsh, 
and not only lacks anything like musical quality, but is 
so harsh that when there are many about the noise is 
really annoying. The poet Lathrop describes the change 
so well that I will read it to you. 
