little less of jays. It was heroic, too. They 

 were calm and had all their wits about them. 

 Outwardly they were indifferent to my presence 

 and gave me not the slightest heed. But this 

 was all show. Every instant they saw me ; and, 

 while pretending not to know that I was near, 

 they had come to intercept me, to attract my 

 attention to themselves, and save their nest. 

 And at how much cost ! To have looked within 

 those calm little bosoms were to have seen two 

 hearts as anxious and fearful as ever thumped 

 parental breasts. 



If I had been deceived and led to waste my 

 afternoon or to record something untrue of the 

 blue jay, still, I think, these two birds could 

 hardly have been condemned before the law. 

 For did not their motive justify the deed? 



The blue jays are braggarts, full of noise, and 

 almost without morals ; yet they have not seemed 

 to me quite as bad as they used to, not quite 

 the same blustering, quarrelsome, unmoral rene- 

 gades, since these two showed me how they 

 could conquer their instinctive fears and rise 

 superior to everything common and cowardly 

 by the power of their parental love. 

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