SUPPLEMENT. 585 



contained would in every instance most inevitably perish, and thus 

 in a few years the whole species must become extinct. On the first 

 appearance of the young Cow Bunting, the parent being frequently 

 obliged to leave the nest to provide sustenance for the foundling, the 

 business of incubation is thus necessarily interrupted ; the disposition 

 to continue it abates. Nature has now given a new direction to the 

 zeal of the parent, and the remaining eggs, within a week or two at 

 most, generally disappear. In some instances, indeed, they have 

 been found on the ground near or below the nest, but this is rarely 

 the case. I have -never known more than one egg of the Cow Bunt- 

 ing in the same nest." — Wilson. 



Oyanubus cbistatus. Blue Jay. — The Blue Jay is found widely 

 distributed over the North American continent. "The entire family 

 to which this Jay belongs, and of which it is a very conspicuous 

 member, is nearly cosmopolitan as to distribution, and is dis- 

 tinguished by the remarkable intelligence of all its members. Its 

 habits are striking, peculiar, and full of interest, often evincing 

 sagacity, forethought, and intelligence strongly akin to reason. 

 These traits are common to the whole family." — North American 

 Birds. 



Wary as this bird is in the settled parts of the country, in the 

 western prairies it is, says Mr. Allen, half domestic. In one of the 

 principal streets of Richmond, Ind., he found a nest, built in a lilac 

 bush, under the window of a dwelling. In Kansas the Jay is equally 

 familiar, and is more highly colored than at the North. The voice 

 of the Blue Jay is remarkably flexible, being attuned either to soft 

 and musical notes, to the harshest screamings of the hawk tribe, or 

 the most ear-rending shrieks, resembling nothing so nrirch as the 

 piercing creaks of an ungreased wheel. Wilson says of him : " He 

 appears to be among his fellow-musicians what a trumpeter is in a 

 band, some of his notes having no distant resemblance to the? tones 

 of that instrument. These he has the faculty of changing through 

 a great variety of modulations, according to the particular humor he 

 happens to be in. When disposed for ridicule, there is scarcely a 

 bird whose peculiarities of song he cannot tune his notes to. When 

 engaged in the blandishments of love, they resemble the soft chat- 

 terings of a Duck ; and, while he nestles among the thick branches 

 of the cedar, are scarce heard at a few paces distant. But he no 

 sooner discovers your approach, than he sets up a sudden and ve- 

 hement outcry, flying off and screaming with all his might, as if he 

 would call the whole feathered tribe to witness some outrageous 



