XI. 

 LITTLE BOY BLUE. 



" The crested blue jay flitting swift." 



To know the little boy blue in his domestic 

 life had been my desire for years. In vain did 

 I search far and wide for a nest, till it began to 

 look almost as if the bird intentionally avoided 

 me. I went to New England, and blue jays dis- 

 appeared as if by magic ; I turned my steps to 

 the Rocky Mountains, and the whole tribe betook 

 itself to the inaccessible hills. In despair I 

 abandoned the search, and set up my tent in the 

 middle country, without a thought of the bonny 

 blue bird. One June morning I seated myself 

 by my window, which looked out upon a goodly 

 stretch of lawn dotted with trees of many kinds, 

 and behold the long-desired object right before 

 my eyes ! 



The blue jay himself pointed it out to me ; 

 unconsciously, however, for he did not notice 

 me in my distant window. From the ground, 

 where I was looking at him, he flew directly to 

 a pine-tree about thirty feet high, and there, 

 near the top, sat his mate on her nest. He 



