﻿182 Bird -Lore 



graceful, arrayed by Nature in a garb so resplendent, should harbour so 

 much mischief; — that selfishness, duplicity and malice should form the 

 moral accompaniments of so much physical perfection ! Yet so it is, and how 

 like beings of a much higher order, are these gay deceivers. Aye, I could 

 write you a whole chapter on this subject, were not my task of a different 

 nature." 



Alexander Wilson esteemed the Blue Jay a frivolous fellow: "This 

 elegant bird is distinguished as a kind of beau among the feathered tenants 

 of our woods, by the brilliancy of his dress; and, like most other coxcombs, 

 makes himself still more conspicuous by his loquacity, and the oddness of 

 his tones and gestures. In the charming season of spring, when every 

 thicket pours forth harmony, the part performed by the Jay always catches 

 the ear. He appears to be, among his fellow-musicians, what the trumpeter 

 is in a band, some of his notes having no distant resemblance to the tones 

 of that instrument. These he has the faculty of changing through a great 

 variety of modulations, according to the particular humor he happens to be 

 in. When disposed for ridicule, there is scarce a bird whose peculiarities of 

 song he cannot tune his notes to. When engaged in the blandishments of 

 love they resemble the soft chatterings of a Duck; and, while he nestles 

 among the thick branches of the cedar, are scarce heard at a few paces dis- 

 tance; but no sooner does he discover your approach than he sets up a 

 sudden and vehement outcry, flying off, and screaming with all his might, 

 as if he called the whole feathered tribes of the neighborhood to vitness 

 some outrageous usage he had received. When he hops undisturbed mong 

 the high branches of the oak and hickory, they become soft and m sical; 

 and his call of the female, a stranger would readily mistake for the repeated 

 creakings of an ungreased wheelbarrow. All these he accompanies with 

 various nods, jerks and other gesticulations, for which the whole tr z of 

 Jays is so remarkable, that, with some other peculiarities, they might '^ave 

 very well justified the great Swedish naturalist* in forming them in« > a 

 separate genus by themselves." 



Of the more modern writers on the life -history of the Blue Jay, the late 

 Major Bendire says: "Few of our native birds compare in beauty of plumage 

 and general bearing with the Blue Jay, and, while one cannot help admiring 

 him on account of amusing and interesting traits, still even his best friends 

 cannot say much in his favor, and, though I have never caught one actually 

 in mischief, so many close observers have done so, that one cannot very 

 well, even if so inclined, disprove the principal charge brought against this 

 handsome freebooter." 



It is an unfortunate fact that if a bad name is attached to a person or a 

 bird it is hard work to live it down, even though the bearer has been con- 

 demned on hearsay evidence. The story of guilt may have been started on 



* Carl von Li nne = Linnaeus, born May Z4, 1707, at Rashult. Sweden. 



