THE JAY. 191 



general character. This bird is always extremely 

 timid and cautious, when its own interest or safety 

 is solely concerned ; but no sooner does its hungry 

 brood clamour for supply, than it loses all this 

 wary character, and becomes a bold and impu- 

 dent thief. At this period it will visit our gardens, 

 which it rarely approaches at other times, plunder 

 them of every raspberry, cherry, or bean, that it 

 can obtain ; and will not cease from rapine as long 

 as any of the brood or the crop remains. We see 

 all the nestlings approach, and, settling near some 

 meditated scene of plunder, quietly await a sum- 

 mons to commence. A parent bird from some tree 

 surveys the ground, then descends upon the cherry, 

 or into the rows, immediately announces a dis- 

 covery by a low but particular call, and all the 

 family flock in to the banquet, which having 

 finished by repeated visits, the old birds return to 

 the woods, with all their chattering children, and 

 become the same wild, cautious creatures they were 

 before. Some of our birds separate from their 

 broods, as soon as they are able to provide for 

 themselves ; but the jay and its family associate 

 during all the autumn and winter months, taking 

 great delight in each other ""s company, and only 

 separate to become founders of new establishments. 

 We see them in winter under the shelter of tall 

 hedges, or on the sunny sides of woods and copses, 

 seeking amid the dry leaves c for acorns, or the crab, to 



