186 THE JAY. 



Natural affection, the love of offspring, is parti- 

 cularly manifested in birds ; for in general they are 

 timid and weak creatures, flying from apprehended 

 dangers, and endowed with little or no power of 

 defending themselves ; but they will menace when 

 injury is threatened to their brood, and incur dan- 

 gers 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 

 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 it becomes a bold and impudent 

 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 disco- 

 very 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 



