Language Through Nature 



Lesson 109 



A THRIFTY BLUE JAY 



THE general belief among country people that 

 the jay hoards up nuts for winter use has 

 probably some foundation in fact, though one is 

 at a loss to know where he could place his stores 

 so that they would not be pilfered by the mice and 

 the squirrels. An old hunter told me he had seen 

 jays secreting beechnuts in a knot-hole in a tree. 

 * * * A lady writing to me from Iowa says : "I 

 must tell you what I saw a blue jay do last winter. 

 Flying down to the ground in front of the house he 

 put something in the dead grass, drawing the grass 

 over it, first on one side, then on the other, tramped 

 it down just exactly as a squirrel would, then 

 walked around the spot, examining it to see if it 

 was satisfactory. After he had flown away I went 

 out to see what he had hidden ; it was a nicely 

 shucked peanut that he had laid up for a time of 

 scarcity." Since then I have myself made similar 

 observations. I have several times seen jays carry 

 off chestnuts and hide them here and there upon 

 the ground. They put only one in a place and cov- 

 ered it up with grass or leaves. Instead, therefore, 



