In Winter Quarters 



just at the right time to insure the 

 growths you will be expecting in the 

 spring. The jays, in fact, are happiest 

 when there is frost in the air and snow 

 in their beloved thickets. They were 

 busy all day yesterday watching us, 

 at a safe distance, as we were pre- 

 paring the cottage and the lawn, the 

 flower-beds and the shrubbery for 

 their annual cold-storage experiences. 

 Wise blue-jays and few excel their 

 tribe in all-around craftiness never 

 get on really intimate terms with men 

 or boys. They know better. They are 

 perfectly well aware of the fact that 

 they are under indictment, on various 

 criminal charges, in every community 

 they invade. They are thieves and 

 outlaws. There is no doubt on that 

 point. They are the Robin Hoods of 

 bird-land. They scold and quarrel and 

 steal, and build no nests under your 

 eaves or in your hedge-rows. It is all 

 right of course for us to inveigle old 

 barnyard "Biddy" into our coop, and 

 [2] 



