BLUE JAY. 13 



to Europe pretty well, and most of them reached Liverpool in good 

 health ; but a few days after their arrival, a disease occasioned by insects 

 adhering to every part of their body, made such progress that some 

 died every day. Many remedies were tried in vain, and only one indivi- 

 dual reached London. The insects had so multiplied on it, that I im- 

 mersed it in an infusion of tobacco, which, however, killed it in 9 few hours. 



On advancing north, I observed that as soon as the Canada Jay made 

 its appearance, the Blue Jay became more and more rare ; not an indivi- 

 dual did any of our party observe in Newfovmdland or Labrador, during 

 our stay there. On landing a few miles from Pictou, on the 22d of August 

 1833, after an absence of several months from the United States, the 

 voice of a Blue Jay sounded melodious to me, and the sight of a Hum- 

 ming Bird quite filled my heart with delight. 



These Jays are plentiful in all parts of the United States. In Louisi- 

 ana, they are so abundant as to prove a nuisance to the farmers, pick- 

 ing the newly planted corn, the pease, and the sweet potatoes, attacking 

 every fruit tree, and even destroying the eggs of pigeons and domestic 

 fowls. The planters are in the habit of occasionally soaking some corn 

 in a solution of arsenic, and scattering the seeds over the ground, in con- 

 sequence of which many Jays are found dead about the fields and gar- 

 dens. 



The Blue Jay is extremely expert in discovering a fox, a racoon, or 

 any other quadruped hostile to birds, and will follow it, emitting a loud 

 noise, as if desirous of bringing every Jay or Crow to its assistance. It 

 acts in the same manner towards owls, and even on somp occasions to- 

 wards hawks. 



This species breeds in all parts of the United States, from Louisiana 

 to Maine, and from the Upper Missouri to the coast of the Atlantic. In 

 South Carolina it seems to prefer for this purpose the live oak trees. In 

 the lower parts of the Floridas it gives place in a great measure to the 

 Florida Jay ; nor did I meet with a single individual in the Keys of that 

 peninsula. In Louisiana, it breeds near the planter''s house, in the up- 

 per parts of the trees growing in the avenues, or even in the yards, and 

 generally at a greater height than in the Middle States, where it is com- 

 paratively shy. It sometimes takes possession of the old or abandoned 

 nest of a Crow or Cuckoo. In the Southern States, from Louisiana to 

 Maryland, it breeds twice every year ; but to the eastward of the latter 

 State seldom more than once. Although it occurs in all places from the 



