

192 BLUE JAY. 



truly to sympathize with each other,) and he is sometimes at- 

 tacked with such spirit, as to be under the necessity of making 

 a speedy retreat. 



He will sometimes assault small birds, with the intention of 

 killing and devouring them; an instance of which I myself once 

 witnessed, over a piece of woods, near the borders of Schuyl- 

 kill ; where I saw him engaged for more than five minutes pur- 

 suing what I took to be a species of Motacilla, wheeling, dart- 

 ing, and doubling in the air, and at last, to my great satisfaction, 

 got disappointed, by the escape of his intended prey. In times 

 of great extremity, when his hoard or magazine is frozen up, 

 buried in snow, or perhaps exhausted, he becomes very vora- 

 cious, and will make a meal of whatever carrion or other ani- 

 mal substance comes in the way; and has been found regaling 

 himself on the bowels of a Robin, in less than five minutes after 

 it was shot. 



There are, however, individual exceptions to this general 

 character for plunder and outrage, a proneness for which is 

 probably often occasioned by the wants and irritations of neces- 

 sity. A Blue Jay, which I have kept for some time, and with 

 whom I am on terms of familiarity, is in reality a very notable 

 example of mildness of disposition, and sociability of manners. 

 An accident in the woods first put me in possession of this bird, 

 while in full plumage, and in high health and spirits; I carried 

 him home with me, and put him into a cage already occupied 

 by a Gold-winged Woodpecker, where he was saluted with such 

 rudeness, and received such a drubbing from the lord of the 

 manor, for entering his premises, that, to save his life, I was 

 obliged to take him out again. I then put him into another 

 cage, where the only tenant was a female Orchard Oriole. She 

 also put on airs of alarm, as if she considered herself endangered 

 and insulted by the intrusion; the Jay, meanwhile, sat mute and 

 motionless on the bottom of the cage, either dubious of his own 

 situation, or willing to allow time for the fears of his neighbour 

 to subside. Accordingly, in a few minutes, after displaying 

 various threatening gestures, (like some of those Indians we 



