TALKS WITH YOUNG OBSERVERS 289 



and there. All our song-birds, so far as I know, 

 do this. 



Sometimes, however, these shells are dropped by 

 blue jays after their contents have been swallowed. 

 The jay will seize a robin's egg by thrusting his beak 

 into it, and hurry off lest he be caught in the act by 

 the owner. At a safe distance he will devour the 

 contents at his leisure, and drop the shell. 



The robins, however, have more than once caught 

 the jay in the act. He has the reputation among 

 them of being a sneak thief. Many and many a 

 time during the nesting season you may see a lot of 

 robins mob a jay. The jay comes slyly prowling 

 through the trees, looking for his favorite morsel, 

 when he is discovered by a vigilant robin, who in- 

 stantly rushes at him crying, "Thief! thief !" at 

 the top of his voice. All the robins that have nests 

 within hearing gather to the spot and join in the 

 pursuit of the jay, screaming and scolding. 



The jay is hustled out of the tree in a hurry, and 

 goes sneaking away with the robins at his heels. He 

 is usually silent, like other thieves, but sometimes 

 the birds make it so hot for him that he screams in 

 anger and disgust. 



Of the smaller birds, like the vireos and warblers, 

 the jay will devour the young. My little boy one 

 day saw a jay sitting beside a nest in a tree, prob- 

 ably that of the red- eyed vireo, and coolly swallow- 

 ing the just hatched young, while the parent birds 

 were powerless to prevent him. They flew at him 

 and snapped their beaks in his face, but he heeded 



