THE BLUE JAY 



. 



During the following days I studied those Jays. There 

 was little new to tell. They did eat the eggs of other small birds, 

 and the newly hatched young as well, they even tore up tiny 

 nestlings to feed to their babies. They did impose on smaller 

 birds, torment their equals, yet act the coward with larger 

 ones. There seemed no evenness of temperament in them. At 

 one minute they came slipping through the trees, cowards in 

 hiding; the following, gaining a sudden access of courage, from the 

 top bough of the tallest tree in the orchard, they screamed defi- 

 ance to all creation, bird, beast and human. 



The male truly was: 



"Mi*. Bluejay full o' sass, 

 In them base-ball clothes o' his." 



But he flew to his home base instead of sliding, for he kept his 

 suit immaculate. The orchard was so clean and the creek so 

 near he had no excuse to be otherwise, while he asked none, 

 for twice and three times a day he went to the water to bathe 

 and to dress every feather on him carefully, always ending by 

 polishing his beak. 



I wanted to make a true character-study of him alone 

 one that would index him without a label; one that would show 

 him as he screamed Hawk-like when on guard. But I could see 

 no way to photograph him away from his nest, while he was 

 not the same bird ctose his cradle, when he felt weighted with 

 family cares. 



I never have secured a -pdcture by giving it up, so I sat under 

 a winesap in line with the rambo to study the situation closely. 

 There I saw something. Blue Jay frequently went over in the 

 wheat beside the fence to catch small worms and grasshoppers. 



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