CANADIAN JAY 153 



When he is about your camp-site just watch his sly 

 expression, which seems to say: "You just give me a 

 chance and see how quickly I will help myself to anything 

 edible or transportable. " Despite his audacity and thiev- 

 ing proclivities I was always glad to see him and I gave 

 him a hearty welcome. If you have two Indian guides, a 

 cook, a congenial hunting companion, a few chipmunks 

 and camp thieves about your tent, making free with your 

 supplies, and you are not happy, your case is utterly 

 hopeless. 



One must admire the Canadian Jay for its endurance 

 and stability, as it winters near a zero home-site, while 

 nearly all its summer neighbors migrate to sunny climes. 

 These Jays will eat anything they can find, and they will 

 steal everything they can carry. At one of my hunting 

 camps in British Columbia, one of these birds actually 

 devoured half a bar of laundry soap and did not appear 

 to regret its unusual diet, for it continued to be a daily 

 caller as long as I remained in that vicinity. 



