SOME MINOR SON'G-BIRDS. 155 



One morning about sunrise, as I sat by a 

 window, writing, I heard the mother-bird 

 " chipping " dolefully, and I looked out just 

 in time to see a blue-jay kill, by a deft turn 

 of its powerful bill, the last remaining fledgling 

 of the brood. The assassin then proceeded 

 to tear up the tiny nest, after which he very 

 perfunctorily flew away ! Here was a case of 

 utter depravity a piece of unmitigated out- 

 rage for which there could have been no mo- 

 tive aside from the impulse of a viciousness 

 incomparable. I went to the spot, and found 

 the young sparrows scattered on the ground, 

 dead in the midst of the shreds of the nest. 

 Each bird bore the livid pincer-like impres- 

 sion of the jay's beak. I cannot account for 

 this well-known brutality of the jay ; it does not 

 appear to be always present with it, for I have 

 known it to live in perfect peace with other birds, 

 nesting in the same orchard and even in the 

 same tree. Its colors and its restless activity 

 make the blue-jay one of the most valuable 

 elements of almost every bit of thicket or 

 hedge throughout our Middle and Southern 

 States for nearly the whole year. 



I am aware that many objections may be 

 urged to putting so harsh a screecher in the 

 catalogue of music-making birds; but it can 

 and does occasionally sing most superbly. 

 Moreover, upon being dissected, the blue-jay's 

 throat shows a very high state of development, 

 the muscular arrangement of the lower larynx 

 bearing every sign of great flexibility and of 

 delicate adjustment. It is a hardy bird, often 

 met with in midwinter far north of the fortieth 

 degree of latitude, apparently quite happy 

 among the sleety and snowy branches of the 



