156 Birds Every Child Should Know 

 BLUE JAY 



This vivacious, dashing fellow, harsh- 

 voiced and noisy, cannot be overlooked; for 

 when a brightly coloured bird, about a foot 

 long, roves about your neighbourhood with a 

 troop of screaming relatives, everybody knows 

 it. In summer he keeps quiet, but throws 

 off all restraint in autumn. Hear him ham- 

 mering at an acorn some frosty morning! 

 How vigorous his motions, how alert and in- 

 dependent! His beautiful military blue, black 

 and white feathers, and crested head, give him 

 distinction. 



He is certainly handsome. But is his beauty 

 only skin deep? Does it cover, in reality, a 

 multitude of sins? Shocking stories of murder 

 in the song bird's nest have branded the blue 

 jay with quite as bad a name as the crow's. The 

 brains of fledgings, it has been said, are his 

 favourite tid-bits. But happily scientists, who 

 have turned the searchlight on his deeds, find 

 that his sins have been very greatly exag- 

 gerated. Remains of young birds were found 

 in only two out of nearly three hundred blue 

 jays' stomachs analysed. Birds' eggs are more 

 apt to be sucked by both jays and squirrels 

 than are the nestlings to be eaten. Do you 

 ever enjoy an egg for breakfast? Fruit, grain, 

 thin-shelled nuts, and the larger seeds of trees 



