XI 



THE BLUE JAY 



SOME years ago, as the story comes to me, two 

 collectors of birds met by accident in South 

 America, one of them from Europe, the other 

 from the United States. " There is one bird that 

 I would rather see than any other in the world," 

 said the European. " It is the handsomest of 

 all the birds that fly, to my thinking, although 

 I know it only in the cabinet. You have it in 

 North America, but I suppose you do not often 

 see it. I mean the blue jay." 



What the American answered in words, I do 

 not know; but I am pretty confident that he 

 smiled. The European might almost as well 

 have said that he supposed Boston people did 

 not often see an English sparrow. Not that the 

 blue jay swarms everywhere as the foreign spar- 

 row swarms in our American cities ; but it is so 

 common, so noisy, so conspicuous, and so unmis- 

 takable, that it is, or ought to be, almost an 

 everyday sight to all country dwellers. 



Strange as it seems, however, I find many 



