MISCHIEF ON THE DESK. 197 



defense, I adopted the plan of laying over it 

 every morning a woolen cloth, which must be 

 lifted every time anything was taken from the 

 desk. This arrangement did not please my 

 small friend in blue, and he took pains to ex- 

 press his displeasure in the most emphatic way. 

 He came down upon the cover, tramped all over 

 it, and sought small holes in it through which to 

 thrust his bill. One day he was busily engaged 

 in hammering a book through an opening, and 

 to cure him of the trick I slipped my hand 

 under, caught his beak between two fingers, and 

 held it a moment. This amazed but did not 

 alarm the bird ; on the contrary, he plainly de- 

 cided to persevere till he found out the secret. 

 He pecked the mounds made by my fingers ; he 

 stooped and looked into the hole, and then 

 probed again. This time I held him longer, 

 so that he had to struggle and beat his wings 

 to get away, and then he walked off indig- 

 nantly. Still he was not satisfied about that 

 mystery, and in a moment he was back again, 

 trying in new ways to penetrate it. I was 

 tired before he was. He was baffled only 

 temporarily ; he soon learned to draw up the 

 fabric, hold the slack under one foot while he 

 pulled it still further, and thus soon reach any- 

 thing he desired. 



The blue-jay always pried into packages by 



