THE BLUE JAY 



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

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

 lings and fed them to their babies. They did impose on smaller 

 birds, tormented their equals and acted 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, 

 and the next gained a sudden access of courage and from the top 

 bough of the tallest tree in the orchard screamed defiance to all 

 creation, bird, beast and human. ) 

 The male truly was, 



"Mr. Blue jay 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, and he asked none, for twice and 

 three times a day he went down to the creek and bathed and 

 dressed every feather on him carefully, always ending by polish- 

 ing his beak. 



I did want 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, and he was not the 

 same bird near his cradle, when he felt weighted with family cares. 



I never get anything by giving up, so I sat down under a 

 winesap in line with the rambo and studied the situation closely. 

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

 wheat along the fence and caught small worms and grasshop- 

 pers. Every time he came back from the west, he broke his long 



235 



