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THE BLUE JAY. 



CORVUS CRISTATUS, LiNN. 

 PLATE CII. Male and Female. 



Readee, look at the plate in which are represented three individuals of 

 this beautiful species, — rogues though they be, and thieves, as I would 

 call them, were it fit for me to pass judgment on their actions. See how 

 each is enjoying the fruits of his knavery, sucking the egg which he has 

 pilfered from the nest of some innocent dove or harmless partridge ! Who 

 could imagine that a form so graceful, arrayed by nature in a garb so 

 resplendent, should harbour so much mischief ; — that selfishness, duph- 

 city, and mahce 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. 



The Blue Jay is one of those birds that are found capable of subsist- 

 ing in cold as well as in warm climates. It occurs as far north as the 

 Canadas, where it makes occasional attacks upon the corn cribs of the 

 farmers, and it is found in the most southern portions of the United 

 States, where it abounds during the winter. Every where it manifests the 

 same mischievous disposition. It imitates the cry of the Sparrow Hawk 

 so perfectly, that the little birds in the neighbourhood hurry into the thick 

 coverts, to avoid what they believe to be the attack of that marauder. 

 It robs every nest it can find, sucks the eggs like the crow, or tears to 

 pieces and devours the young birds. A friend once wounded a Grous 

 (Tetrao umhellus), and marked the direction which it followed, but had 

 not proceeded two hundred yards in pursuit, when he heard something 

 fluttering in the bushes, and found his bird belaboured by two Blue 

 Jays, who were picking out its eyes. The same person once put a Flying 

 Squirrel into the cage of one of these birds, merely to preserve it for one 

 night ; but on looking into the cage about eleven o'clock next day, he 

 found the animal partly eaten. A Blue Jay at Charleston destroyed all 

 the birds of an aviary. One after another had been killed, and the rats 

 were supposed to have been the culprits, but no crevice could be seen 

 large enough to admit one. Then the mice were accused, and war was 



