4 BLUE JAY. 
He will sometimes assault small birds, with the intention of killi 
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, in the escape of his 
intended prey. In times of great extremity, when his hoard or mag- 
azine 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 arc, however, individual exceptions to this general character 
for plunder and outrage, a proneness for which is probably often oc- 
zasioned by the wants and irritations of necessity. A Blue Jay, which 
I have kept for some time, and with whom Lamon terms of familiarity, 
isin reality a very notable example of mildness of disposition and’ 
sociability of manners. An accident in the woods first put me in pos- 
session of this bird, while in full plumage, and in high health and 
spirits ; [ carried him home with me, and put him into a cage alreaay 
occupied by a Golden-winged Woodpecker, where be was saluted with 
4 such rudeness, and received sucha drubbing from the lord of the 
“manor, for entering his premises, that, to save his life, 1 was obliged 
to take him out again. I then put him into another cage, where the 
only tenant was a female Orchard Oriole. She also put on airs of 
alarm, as if she considered herself endangered and insulted by the in- 
trusion ; the Jay, meanwhile, sat mute and motionless on the bottom of 
the cage, either dubious of his own situation, or willing to allow time for 
the fears of his neighbor to subside. Accordingly, in a few minutes, 
after displaying various threatening 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 readiness 
for retreat. Seeing; however, the Jay begin to pick up some crumbs 
of broken chestnuts, in a humble and peaceable way, she also descend- . 
ed, 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 humor. 
When the Jay goes to drink, his messmate very impudently jnmps 
into the water to wash herself, throwing the water in showers over her 
companion, who bears it all 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 fel- 
low-prisoner, allowing her to pick (which she does very gently) about 
his whiskers, and to clean his claws from the minute fragments of 
chestnuts which happen to adhere to them. his attachment on the 
one part, and mild condescension on the other, may, perhaps, be part] 
the effect of mutual misfortunes, which are found not only to knit 
mankind, but many species of infcrior animals, more closely together ; 
and shows that the d sposition of the Blue Jay may be humanized, and 
rendered susceptible of affectionate impressions, even for those birds 
