14 BLUE JAY. 



sea shore to the mountainous districts, it seems more abundant in the 

 latter. The nest is composed of twigs and other coarse materials, lined 

 with fibrous roots. The eggs are four or five, of a dull ohve colour, 

 spotted with brown. 



The Blue Jay is truly omnivorous, feeding indiscriminately on all sorts 

 of flesh, seeds, and insects. He is more tyrannical than brave, and, Uke 

 most boasters, domineers over the feeble, dreads the strong, and flies even 

 from his equals. In many cases in fact, he is a downright coward. The 

 Cardinal Grosbeak will challenge him, and beat him off the ground. The 

 Red Thrush, the Mocking Bird, and many others, although inferior in 

 strength, never allow him to approach their nest with impunity ; and the 

 Jay, to be even with them, creeps silently to it in their absence, and devours 

 their eo-o-s and young whenever he finds an opportunity. I have seen one 

 go its round from one nest to another every day, and suck the newly laid 

 eo-o-s of the different birds in the neighbourhood, with as much regularity 

 and composure as a physician would call on his patients. I have also 

 witnessed the sad disappointment it experienced, when, on returning to 

 its own home, it found its mate in the jaws of a snake, the nest upset, and 

 the eggs all gone. I have thought more than once on such occasions 

 that, like all great culprits, when brought to a sense of their enormities, 

 it evinced a strong feeling of remorse. While at Charleston, in Novem- 

 ber 1833, Dr Wilson of that city told me that on opening a division of 

 his aviary, a Mocking Bird that he had kept for three years, flew at another 

 and killed it, after which it destroyed several Blue Jays, which he had 

 been keeping for me some months in an adjoining compartment. 



The Blue Jay seeks for its food with great diligence at all times, but 

 more especially during the period of its migration. At such a time, where- 

 ever there are chinquapins, wild chestnuts, acorns, or grapes, flocks will be 

 seen to alight on the topmost branches of these trees, disperse, and engage 

 with great vigour in detaching the fruit. Those that fall are picked up 

 from the ground, and carried into a chink in the bark, the sphnters of a 

 fence rail, or firmly held under foot on a branch, and hammered with the 

 bill until the kernel be procured. 



As if for the purpose of gleaning the country in this manner, the Blue 

 Jay migrates from 'one part to another during the day only. A person 

 travelling or hunting by night, may now and then disturb the repose of a 

 Jay, which in its terror sounds an alarm that is instantly responded to by 

 all its surrounding travelling companions, and their multiplied cries make 



