46 MEMOIR OF 



the virulency of a Billingsgate mob ; the owl, mean- 

 while, returning every compliment with a broad 

 goggling stare. The war becomes louder and louder, 

 and the owl at length, forced to betake himself to 

 flight, is followed by his whole train of persecutors, 

 until driven beyond the boundaries of their juris- 

 diction. 



" 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 lie 

 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 bring together a number of interested 

 spectators (for birds in such circumstances seem 

 truly to sympathise with each other), and he is 

 sometimes attacked with such spirit as to be under 

 the necessity of making a speedy retreat." 



" He is not only bold and vociferous, but pos- 

 sesses a considerable talent for mimicry, and seems 

 to enjoy great satisfaction in mocking and teasing 

 other birds, particularly the little hawk (F. sparve- 

 rius\ imitating his cry wherever he sees him, and 

 squealing out as if caught : this soon brings a num- 

 ber of his own tribe around him, who all join in the 

 frolic, darting about the hawk, and feigning the 

 cries of a bird sorely wounded, and already under 

 the clutches of its devourer ; while others lie con- 

 cealed in bushes, ready to second their associates in 



