XIV. THE BLUE-JAY. 



"A lovely bird, with azure wings." Byron. 



ONE can hardly go on with the above quotation and 

 credit the subject of the present article with a "song that 

 said a thousand things," for the Blue- jay's vocalizations 

 are limited to a degree. Ordinarily, as has been neatly re- 

 marked, he "encourages himself in patience" by uttering 

 a sound like "tschok" at intervals, and more rarely he 

 points his bill to heaven and his tail to earth and utters a 

 cackling laugh, in feeble imitation of the great Australian 

 kingfisher, commonly known as the Laughing Jackass 

 (Dacalo gigas). As a matter of fact, our present friend is 

 more kingfisher than jay. this poverty of vocabulary 

 being one of the points in which the relationship comes out ; 

 real jays having a remarkable flexibility of voice, though 

 their ordinary remarks are not much more musical than 

 those of the Roller family, to which the Indian Blue-jay 

 really belongs. Rollers also agree with kingfishers and 

 differ from jays in several easily noticeable points of habit, 

 to say nothing of more recondite anatomical distinctions. 

 Thus, they extend their feet behind when flying, instead of 

 drawing them up to the breast like the crow tribe ; they bolt 

 their food whole , never tearing it with bill and foot like 

 the real jay ; they are practically pure animal feeders, and 

 do not lay up stores against a time of scarcity, unlike the 



