THE WAYS OF JAYS 9 



bower, when I should witness the manner in which Jays 

 evict an unwelcome guest. It was well that my reputation 

 as a bird-student was not staked on the result. Scarcely 

 had I returned to the bower, when one of the Jays reached 

 the nest, and, to my complete astonishment, apparently paid 

 ho attention to the mounted bird, but at once carefully fed 

 her young, whose eagerness now added to my wonder at 

 their previous self-restraint. One visit, during which sev- 

 eral, and perhaps all, of the young were fed, strangely 

 enough satisfied their hunger, when the parent, with com- 

 plete composure, perched beside her nest and slightly open- 

 ed her bill, as birds sometimes do when at rest, forming as 

 beautiful a picture of bird life as artist or naturalist could 

 well desire. So completely had the mental attitude of the 

 bird altered, that my movements in the bower were wholly 

 ignored, and it was actually necessary to walk up to the 

 nest-tree before she could be induced to leave her perch. 



What had occasioned so complete a change in the bird 's 

 actions 1 Possibly it was not the same parent that had 

 visited the nest so hurriedly ; but if this one of the pair was 

 so much the tamer, why had it not come to the nest during 

 the hour and a half after I had entered the bower? Could 

 the dummy bird below have been mistaken for its mate by 

 the bird that perched so composedly above? It is true that 

 the second one of the pair did not appear ; but as neither of 

 them went far from the nest, it is more than probable that 

 the absent mate was within sight and sound during the 

 whole proceeding. 



"We may resort to explanatory theories more or less 

 plausible. The humanizer of birds might ask us to believe 

 that the dummy Jay resembled a relative or dear friend of 

 the nest-owners, from whom they were expecting a call that 

 morning, though to my mind, the incident proved that the 

 Jay could not distinguish the difference between a living 

 bird and a poorly mounted one of its own species. However, 

 be the explanation what it may, there can be no doubt that 



