136 ■ BLUE JAY. 



himself to fliglit, is followed by the whole train of his persecutors, until 

 driven beyond the boundaries of their jurisdiction. 



But the Blue Jay himself is not guiltless of similar depredations 

 with the Owl, and becomes, in his turn, the very tyrant he detested, 

 when he sneaks through the woods, as he frequently does, and among 

 the thickets and hedge-rows, plundering every nest he can find of its 

 eggs, tearing up the callow young by piecemeal, and spreading alarm 

 and sorrow around him. The cries of the distressed parents soon bi'ing 

 together a number of interested spectators (for birds, in such circum- 

 stances, seem truly to sympathize with each other), and he is sometimes 

 attacked with such spirit, as to be under the necessity of making a 

 speedy retreat. 



He will sometimes assault small birds, with the intention of killing 

 and devouring them ; an instance of which I myself once witnessed, 

 over a piece of woods, near the borders of Schuylkill ; where I saw him 

 engaged for more than five minutes pursuing what I took to be a species 

 of Motacilla, wheeling, darting, and doubling in the air, and at last, 

 to my great satisfaction, got disappointed, by the escape of his 

 intended prey. lu times of great extremity, when his hoard or maga- 

 zine is frozen up, buried in snow, or perhaps exhausted, he becomes very 

 voracious, and will make a meal of whatever carrion or other animal 

 substance comes in the way ; and has been found regaling himself on 

 the bowels of a Robin, in less than five minutes after it w.as shot. 



There are, however, individual exceptions to this general character 

 for plunder and outrage, a proneness for which is probably often occa- 

 sioned by the wants and irritations of -necessity. A Blue Jay, which I 

 have kept for some time, and with whom I am on terms of familiarity, 

 is in reality a very notable example of mildness of disposition, and 

 sociability of manners. An accident in the woods first put me in pos- 

 session of this bird, while in full plumage, and in high health and 

 spirits ; I carried him home with me, and put him into a cage already 

 occupied by a Gold-winged Woodpecker, where he was saluted with such 

 rudeness, and received such a drubbing from the lord of the manor, for 

 entering his premises, that, to save his life, I was obliged to take him 

 out again. I then put him into another cage, where the only tenant 

 was a female Orchard Oriole. She also put on airs of alarm, as if she 

 considered herself endangered and insulted by the intrusion ; the Jay, 

 meanwhile, sat mute and motionless on the bottom of the cage, either 

 dubious of his own situation, or willing to allow time for the fears of his 

 neighbor to subside. Accordingly, in a few minutes, after displaying 

 various threatening gestures (like some of those Indians we read of, in 

 their first interviews with the whites), she began to make her approaches, 

 but with great circumspection, and readiness for retreat. Seeing, how- 

 ever, the Jay begin to pick up some crumbs of broken chostnuts^ in a 



