MAGPIES. 207 



carries off to its hoard. In the ruins of Holyrood Chapel, in 

 Edinburgh, a Jackdaw was one day seen flying away with a 

 large piece of lace towards its nest ; a soldier undertook to 

 climb up and recover it. He did so, but was surprised to 

 find, not only the stolen lace, but the following strange assort- 

 ment of articles : part of a worsted stocking, a silk hand- 

 kerchief, a frill, a child's cap, besides several other things, but 

 so ragged and worn out, that it was impossible to make out 

 what they were. 



JAYS AND MAGPIES. 



IT is remarkable how exactly similar are the habits and 

 propensities of birds of the same tribe or family, though of a 

 different species. Thus the Jays of North America are of 

 various sorts, entirely differing from our English Jays in parts, 

 or the whole of their plumage; and yet in their manners 

 scarcely a difference is observable. We have before remarked, 

 that these and some other birds will just keep out of the 

 range of gun-shot, as if they had learned, either from expe- 

 rience, or by some unknown mode of communication from 

 their older companions, that provided they never allowed a 

 shooter to come within a given distance, they were quite safe. 

 But the American Jays we are speaking of have no such 

 knowledge founded upon experience, as is fully proved by the 

 account of an English officer,* who was travelling in a very 

 .wild, unfrequented part of North America, where no gunners 

 had ever gone before him, and no Jay could therefore have 

 ever learned the proper distance to keep, in order to ensure 

 its safety. Yet there they were, exactly like our common 

 English Jays, shy and cautious, as if they had been hunted 

 by sportsmen every day of their lives, keeping at a certain 

 distance, with that occasional clatter and chattering so well 

 known to those who have patiently and perseveringly pursued 

 from copse to copse, or tree to tree, a disturbed party of these 

 cunning birds. 



At the same time, certain birds of similar habits will 



* Captain Sir Francis Head. 



