386 THE HUNTING CISSA. 



these scenes are very characteristic and very amusing, and I have frequently witnessed 

 theni. 



The pine-log cutters of the north know him well, and bestow on him many a blessing 

 from the wrong side of the mouth. The deep snow is raked away, and the canijj is 

 pitched beneath the gloomy shelter of the heaving pines. Scarcely has the odour of the 

 first roast streamed through the air and freighted every biting wind, when, with hungry 

 cries from every side, the Jays come gathering in. They swarm about the camp in 

 hundreds, and such is their audacity when hard pinched with hunger, that they are 

 frequently seen to dash at the meat roasting before the fire, and, hot as it is, bear pieces 

 off till they can cool it in the snow. They are regarded with singular aversion by these 

 lonely men ; for, take what precaution they may, they are often robbed to such serious 

 extent by their persevering depredators as to be reduced to suffering. They dare not 

 leave any article that can be carried off within their reach ; when they kill game, and 

 leave it hung up until the hunt is over, the Jays assemble in thousands, and frequently 

 tear it in pieces before their return. 



The Blue Jay has many of the traits of the magpie, and like him possesses an 

 inveterate propensity for hiding everything he can lay hold of in the shape of food. The 

 magpie hides things that are of no value, but a Jay is in every respect a utilitarian, and 

 when, after feeding to repletion, he is seen to busy himself for hours in sticking an acorn 

 here, or a beech-nut there, in a dust-hole, or wedging snails between the splinters of some 

 lightning-shivered trunk, or making deposits beneath the sides of decaying logs, naturalists 

 wonder what he is doing it for. But our Euphuist knows well enough, and you may rest 

 assured, if you see him along that way next winter, as you will be apt to do if you watch, 

 you will find that he has not forgotten the place of one single deposit, and that with a 

 shrewder economy than the ant or the squirrel, instead of heaping up his winter corn in 

 one granary, where a single accident may deprive him of it all, he has scattered them 

 here and there in a thousand different spots, the record of which is kept in his own 

 memory. So it cannot be denied, whatever may be said of his thieving and other dubious 

 propensities, that the Blue Jay is a decidedly sagacious personage. 



So universal is the Blue Jay's reputation for mischievous and impish tricks of any 

 kind, that the negroes of the South regard them with a strange mixture of superstition 

 and deadly hate. The belief among them is, that it is the special agent of the devil here 

 on earth — carries tales to him of all kinds of slanderous gossip, particularly about negroes 

 — and more especially, that they supply him with fuel to burn them with. Their animosity 

 is entirely genuine and implacable. 



When a boy, I caught many of them in traps during the snows, and the negro boys, 

 who generally accompanied me on my rounds to the traps, always begged eagerly for the 

 Jay birds we captured to be surrendered to them, and the next instant their necks were 

 wrung, amid shouts of laughter. 



Alas for the fate of our feathered Euphuist — yet he was a ' fellow of infinite wit.' " 



The colouring of the Blue Jay is as follows : The upper portions of the body are a 

 light bluish purple, and the head is adorned with a moveable crest of bright blue or 

 purplish feathers. On each side of the head runs a narrow black line, rising higher than 

 the eye, but not passing it, and a collar of the same jetty hue is drawn from the back of 

 the head down each side of the neck to the upper part of the breast. The chin, cheeks, 

 and throat are bluish white, and the abdomen is piu^e white. The greater wing-coverts 

 are rich azure, the secondary coverts are purple-blue, and nearly all are richly barred with 

 semilunar black streaks and tipped with white. The two middle feathers of the tail are 

 light blue, deepening into purple at the tip, and the remaining feathers are also light blue, 

 barred with black and tipped with white. The eye is hazel. The length of this species 

 is about eleven inches. 



Asia presents a most beautiful and interesting example of this group of birds in the 

 Hunting Cissa, or Hunting Ceow of India. 



This lovely bird is a native of Nepal, and is spread throughout the south-eastern part 

 of the Himalayas, and in its own favoured locality is far from scarce. Owing, however 



