228, THE JAY. 
fluttered, you may take the eggs out of the nest, 
and blow upon them, and put them in your mouth 
if you choose, or change their original position when 
you replace them in the nest, notwithstanding which 
the bird will come back to them (even though it be 
a ringdove), and continue to sit on them as atten- 
tively as before. 
The jay being one of those birds which have their 
brilliant colours prior to their first moulting, you 
will find the male and female so much alike, that it 
will be no easy matter to distinguish the one from 
the other. 
The young of this bird are born blind: of course, 
the parent bird never covers the eggs with any part 
of the materials which form the nest, when she has 
occasion to be absent. 
Here let me remark the immense difference that 
exists betwixt a newly hatched bird with its eyes 
open, and one newly hatthed with its eyes closed, 
The first can walk and find its food in a very short 
time; the second is helpless in the extreme for 
many days, and cannot support its own weight. A 
scientific friend in the United States of North 
America has asked my opinion of our English ac- 
count concerning a young cuckoo, which, on the 
very day that it was hatched, was actually seen 
retrograding up the side of a hedge sparrow’s nest 
with a young hedge sparrow on its back. After 
reaching the top, it rested for a moment, and then, 
with a jerk, threw off its load quite clear of the nest. 
No bird in the creation could perform such an as- 
tounding feat under such embarrassing circum- 
