THE BLUE JAY 



Most people are surprised when they first learn that the Blue 

 Jay is a near relative of the Crow. The difference in color is certainly 

 marked, but in other ways the resemblance is striking. Neither bird 

 can utter its most characteristic note without gesticulation. Watch a 

 Crow from a car window when the caw is inaudible, and the bowing 

 and opening of the wings are all the more noticeable. The motions 

 which the Jay makes when screaming are not so well known, as 

 the sound generally comes from a screen of leaves. Both birds are 

 thieves and seem to relish their thieving life; both can live on 

 almost any food; both are heartily hated by their neighbors in bird 

 world. The Jay is more bitterly detested by the other birds than 

 the Crow. He is himself suspicious, and at the approach of a hawk, 

 owl, or man, warns the woods by his cries. Besides the ordinary djay, 

 djay, the loud scream so familiar in the autumn woods, the Jay has 

 other cries ; a note like a wheelbarrow turning on an ungreased axle, 

 a high scream exactly like the Red-shouldered Hawk's, and such a 

 variety of lesser notes that one never is surprised to find that any 

 unusual sound heard in the woods is produced by the Blue Jay. 



Though one of the noisiest of birds when pursuing an intruder, 



the Jay has learned to slip through the trees without a sound, and 



conceals its bright blue and white in a remarkable way. A pair 



of Jays may be nesting in some evergreen in our very garden, and 



unless we happen to see the female slip into the tree, we may remain 



entirely unaware of their presence. The nest is roughly constructed 



of twigs and roots, and is placed in a tree from six to twenty feet 



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