30 Bird Portraits 
from the ground. On a lining of finer roots are laid four or five 
brownish or greenish eggs, spotted with yellowish brown. The young 
are hatched by the middle or end of June. 
The Jay in spring is undoubtedly a reprobate. He cannot resist 
the temptation to sneak through the trees and bushes, and when he 
finds a nest of eggs temporarily left by its owner, to thrust his sharp 
bill through the shells; even young birds are devoured. In the 
autumn, however, the Jay is a hearty, open fellow, noisy and intent 
on acorns and chestnuts. The woods ring with his loud screams, 
as he travels through them with his companions. It is amusing at 
this season to observe them obtaining chestnuts, a favorite food. 
They drive their powerful bills into a nut and wrench it out of the 
burr, then fly off with it to a convenient limb and hammer it open. 
Many Jays spend the entire winter in the northern woods, subsisting 
on nuts, but the large numbers observed in the fall are evidence that 
many others are moving southward, where food is more plenty. 
Jays and squirrels are curiously associated; both live in the 
autumn and winter, innocently enough, on nuts and acorns; both, in 
spring, poach on the eggs and young of birds. One becomes fond 
of each of these rascals in spite of his undoubted villanies, and is 
glad that though neither Squirrel nor Jay is protected by law, and 
in some states both are constantly persecuted, neither seems to be 
diminishing in numbers. 
In Europe, the Crow and the Jay have several relatives, many 
of whom, such as the Magpie, Rook, and Jackdaw, share the family 
characteristics. They are all thieves, clowns, and impudent fellows, 
and yet win, if not affection, yet a certain degree of good-humored 
toleration. 
ee 
