OUR TROUBLESOME ROGUE. 187 



picture. All through the spring excitement, 

 when the other birds, one after another, grew 

 uneasy, belligerent, or unhappy, and one after 

 another were returned to freedom, he never 

 showed a moment's uneasiness, an instant's de- 

 sire to be free, but scrupulously attended to his 

 own regular business, which is to pound and 

 pull and peck to pieces my furniture, and espe- 

 cially to destroy my books. 



As these last words are written, just at dusk, 

 the dear, troublesome rogue comes down to the 

 corner of his cage nearest to me, and as if he 

 understood that I had said something about him 

 begins to talk and remonstrate in a low, loving 

 tone. I do feel reproached, and I must unsay it. 

 His business, his manifest destiny, is to hammer 

 and peck the shells of nuts, and to hide them 

 away where they will grow ; and if cruel man 

 confines him in a house, he must exercise his 

 untiring energy, his demon of work, in what he 

 finds there, — and who can blame him, or find 

 fault ? Not I, certainly. 



In behalf of this bird against whom the pen 

 of nearly every writer is lifted, let me quote 

 from one of our early and most careful observ- 

 ers, William Bartram : " The jay is one of the 

 most useful agents in the economy of nature for 

 disseminating forest trees and other ruciferous 

 and hard-seeded vegetables on which they feed. 



