128 GRAY LADY AND THE BIRDS 
we cannot make up for the death of young nestlings and 
the loss of eggs. . I will not have the Crows shot, because 
they do good in the far meadows and hayfields, but the 
lonely woods, where few small birds nest, is the place for 
them. I shall see that they never again build in my 
garden orchard or woods, and if every one will do this, the 
danger to song-birds will be less, and in the winter, when 
they come about, there are no nestlings to be eaten. 
“Tt was not long after that, owing to the evidence of 
my own eyes, I was obliged to say the same thing to the 
Blue Jay. 
“The Wise Men say that, take it all in all, the Crow 
should have a chance, and that part of his faults come 
from our own shiftlessness. This is true, but if he feeds 
upon song-birds the Crow must go. 
The Blue Jay 
“That the Blue Jay is a handsome fellow goes without 
saying, as well as that he has plenty of assurance and is 
somewhat of a bully. We may imagine that he knows 
that his uniform of blue, gray, and white, with black bands 
and markings, is very becoming, and if any one of you 
should tell me that he had seen a Jay admiring his reflec-. 
tion in a pond or little pool, I should be ready to believe 
him. Certain it is that not one of our birds, not even the 
glowing Scarlet Tanager, presents a more neat and military 
appearance. 
The only awkward thing about the Blue Jay is his 
flight. Although alert and agile in slipping through the 
trees, when he takes to wing his progress seems laboured, 
