AND AMERICAN 
becomes louder and louder, and the owl, at length forced 
to betake himself to flight, is followed by the whole train 
of his persecutors, until driven beyond the boundaries of 
their jurisdiction. 
But the Blue Jay himself is not guiltless of similar depre- 
dations with the owl, and becomes, in his turn, the very 
tyrant he detested, when he sneaks through the woods, as 
he frequently does, and among the thickets and hedge- 
rows, plundering every nest he can find of its eggs, tearing 
up the callow young by piecemeal, and spreading alarm 
and sorrow around him. The cries of the distressed pa- 
rents soon bring together a number of interested spectators, 
(for birds, in such circumstances, seem truly to sympa- 
thize with each other,) and he is sometimes attacked with 
such spirit, as to be under the necessity of making a speedy 
retreat. 
He will sometimes assault small birds, with the inten- 
tion of killing and devouring them; an instance of which I 
myself once witnessed, over a piece of woods, near the 
borders of Schuylkill; where I saw him engaged for more 
than five minutes pursuing what I took to be a species of 
Motacilla, wheeling, darting, and doubling in the air, and 
at last, to my great satisfaction, got disappointed, by the 
escape of his intended prey. In times of great extremity, 
when his hoard or magazine is frozen up, buried in snow, 
or perhaps exhausted, he becomes very voracious, and will 
make a meal of whatever carrion or other animal substance 
comes in the way; and has been found regaling himself on 
the bowels of a robin, in less than five minutes after it was 
shot. 
There are, however, individual exceptions to this gene- 
ral character for plunder and outrage, a proneness for which 
is probably often occasioned by the wants and irritations 
of necessity. A Blue Jay, which I have kept for some 
time, and with whom I am on terms of familiarity, is in 
reality a very notable example of mildness of disposition, 
and sociability of manners. An accident in the woods 
first put me in possession of this bird, while in full plum- 
age, and in high health and spirits; I carried him home 
with me, and put him into a cage already occupied by a 
Gold-winged Woodpecker, when he was saluted with such 
rudeness, and received sucha drubbing from the lord of 
the manor, for entering his premises, that, to save his life, 
I was obliged to take him out again. I then put him into 
another cage, where the only tenant was a female Orchard 
Oriole. Shealso put on airs of alarm, as if she considered 
herself endangered and insulted by the intrusion; the Jay, 
meanwhile, sat mute and motionless on the bottom of the 
cage, either dubious of his own situation, or willing to al- 
low time for the fears of his neighbour to subside. Ac- 
cordingly, ina few minutes, after displaying various threat- 
RURAL SPORTS. 63 
ening gestures, (like some of those Indians we read of, in 
their first interviews with the whites,) she began to make 
her approaches, but with great circumspection and readi- 
ness for retreat. Seeing, however, the Jay begin to pick 
up some crumbs of broken chesnuts, ina humble and peace- 
able way, shealso descended, and began to do the same; 
but at the slightest motion of her new guest, wheeled round, 
and put herself on the defensive. All this ceremonious 
jealousy vanished before evening, and they now roost 
together, feed, and play together, in perfect harmony and 
good humour. When the Jay goes to drink, his mess- 
mate very impudently jumps into the water to wash her- 
self, throwing the water in showers over her companion, 
who bears it all very patiently; venturing now and then to 
take a sip between every splash, without betraying the 
smallest token of irritation. On the contrary, he seems 
to take pleasure in his little fellow-prisoner, allowing her 
to pick, (which she does very gently,) about his whis- 
kers, and to clean his claws from the minute fragments of 
chesnuts which happen to adhere to them. This attach- 
ment on the one part, and mild condescension on the other, 
may, perhaps, be partly the effect of mutual misfortunes, 
which are found not only to knit mankind, but many spe- 
cies of inferior animals, more closely together; and shows 
that the disposition of the Blue Jay may be humanized, and 
rendered susceptible of affectionate impressions, even for 
those birds, which, in a state of nature, he would have 
no hesitation in making a meal of. 
He is not only bold and vociferous, but possesses a con- 
siderable talent for mimicry, and seems to enjoy great satis- 
faction in mocking and teasing other birds, particularly the 
little hawk, (F. sparvertus,) imitating his ery wherever 
he sees him, and squealing out as if caught; this soon 
brings a number of his own tribe around him, who all join 
in the frolic, darting about the hawk, and feigning the 
cries of a bird sorely wounded, and already under the 
clutches of its devourer, while others lie concealed in 
bushes ready to second their associates in the attack. But 
this ludicrous farce often terminates tragically. The hawk 
singling out one of the most insolent and provoking, 
sweeps upon him in an unguarded moment, and offers him 
up a sacrifice to his hunger and resentment. In an instant 
the tune is changed; all their buffoonery vanishes, and 
loud and incessant screams proclaim their disaster. 
Wherever the Jay has had the advantage of education 
from man, he has not only shown himself an apt scholar, 
but his suavity of manners seems equalled only by his art 
and contrivances; though it must be confessed that his 
itch for thieving keeps pace with all his other acquire- 
ments. Dr. Mease, on the authority of Col. Postell, of 
South Carolina, informs me, that a Blue Jay, which was 
