190 THE JAY. 



such a precaution, securing it from all common 

 depredation, though not from the hand of the 

 birdnesting boy. When a hatch is effected, the 

 number of young demand a larger quantity of 

 food than is easily obtained, and whole broods of 

 our ducklings, whenever they stray from the yard, 

 are conveyed to the nest. But still the ' maggot'' 

 is not an unuseful bird, as it frees our pastures 

 of incredible numbers of grubs and slugs, which 

 lodge themselves under the crusts formed by the 

 dung of cattle. These the birds with their strong 

 beaks turn over, and catch the lurking animals 

 beneath, and then break them to search for 

 more ; by which means, during winter, they will 

 spread the entire droppings in the fields ; and by 

 spring I have had, especially under the hedges, 

 all this labour saved to me by these assiduous 

 animals. 



Natural affection, the love of offspring, is par- 

 ticularly manifested in birds ; for in general they 

 are timid and weak creatures, flying from appre- 

 hended dangers, and endowed with little or no 

 power of defending themselves; but they will 

 menace when injury is threatened to their brood, 

 and incur dangers in order to obtain food for their 

 young, that they will encounter in no other period 

 of their lives. 



The common jay (corvus glandarius) affords a 

 good example of this temporary departure from 



