DOUBTFUL CHARACTERS 121 



thing when the chance ofters, the jay must be 

 let off lightly, poor fellow. Worst crime of all, 

 he kills young chicks. But what business has 

 any decent hen to wander out into the fields and 

 to lay in the hedge, as some of these fowls will ? 

 Guinea-fowls are as bad they are a perfect 

 nuisance in that way. When the chicks are 

 out, they are here, there, and everywhere, in 

 bounds, and out of bounds, all over the place. 



Is it to be wondered at, then, if one or two 

 of the little mites get picked up ? though not 

 many come to grief; for a hen or a " come- 

 back," as the guinea-fowl is called, will show 

 fight in the most determined manner in defence 

 of their young broods. We sometimes see one 

 of the large old-fashioned brown hens behave 

 more like a bird of prey, for a time, than a barn- 

 door fowl when her chicks are in danger. 



It often appears to me that matters are a 

 little one-sided just at present ; and it is unfor- 

 tunate that those who know the least about 

 wild life seem to have the most to say. If the 

 jay did one quarter of the mischief he is credited 

 with, he would surely have been exterminated 

 long ago. 



Like the fox, the bird is another scapegoat. 

 If one falls to a shot it is generally a snap-shot, 



