IMPORTANT BUSINESS ON HAND. 145 



in two minutes for another supply. The red- 

 headed woodpecker, who claimed to own the 

 corn-field, seemed to think this a little grasping, 

 and protested against such a wholesale perform- 

 ance ; but the overworked jay simply jumped 

 one side when he came at him, and went right 

 on picking up corn. When he had time to 

 spare from his arduous duties, he sometimes in- 

 dulged his passion for burying things by carry- 

 ing a grain off on the lawn with an air of 

 most important business, and driving it into the 

 ground, hammering it well down out of sight. 



The blue jay's manner of getting over the 

 ground was peculiar, and especially his way of 

 leaving it. He proceeded by high hops, bound- 

 ing up from each like a rubber ball ; and when 

 ready to fly he hopped farther and bounded 

 higher each time, till it seemed as if he were 

 too high to return, and so took to his wings. 

 That is exactly the way it looked to an ob- 

 server; for there is a lightness, an airiness 

 of bearing about this apparently heavy bird 

 impossible to describe, but familiar to those who 

 have watched him. 



Some time after the blue jay family had taken 

 to roaming about the grounds, I had a pleasing 

 little interview with one of them in the rasp- 

 berry patch. This was a favorite resort of the 

 neighboring birds, where I often betook myself 



