i8o What Birds Have Done With Me 



with the Pea-cock and they may have attended the 

 same singing school. Nevertheless, I'd rather 

 listen to forty Jays than one Hawaiian Band. 



Years and years ago, when I was an officer in 

 the Penitentiary of Wisconsin, there was a Jay 

 there, the prisoner of a prisoner and in spite of 

 his gloomy surroundings he was a gay rollicking 

 fellow, with more pranks and whimsies than a 

 Parrot or a Monkey. It was a matter of frequent 

 comment that he was such a favorite with the in- 

 mates of the cell-house where he was kept and it 

 was generally understood that when prisoners 

 hurled curses at him, they were compliments in 

 disguise, for they all recognized that his shrill 

 squawk had power to bring to them, even through 

 barred windows, the great out of doors. 



I never listen to a passionate denunciation of 

 the Jay, generally expressed by a string of oppro- 

 brious epithets, a few laps longer than the moral 

 law, without being reminded of the quarrel be- 

 tween a couple of negro boys; when one had 

 hurled at the other every obnoxious term he could 

 think of, the one assailed quietly remarked, "All 

 you say I am, you is." You think the Jay a 

 thief and a robber, well he returns your sentiment 

 plus a distrust of you, in all your ways, unequalled 

 by anything in the bird kingdom. Don't be de- 

 ceived by the fact that he is not wild, that is ex- 

 plained by the further fact that he is not afraid 



