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OF NEW ENGLAND. 267 
evergreen, often near the trunk, from five to twenty feet above 
thé ground. The chief materials are usually sticks or twigs, 
and fine roots, which form the lining. Four or five eggs, aver- 
aging 1:20 X °80 of an inch, are laid, near Boston, about the 
twentieth of May. They are brown or green (resembling the 
lighter shades used in frescoing), more or less spotted with 
subdued brown and often obscure lilac. 
(c). If the old proverb be true, that ‘handsome is what 
handsome does,” the Blue Jay is not to be admired, in spite of 
his strikingly beautiful plumage. On the contrary, he is to be 
despised as a murderer, a thief, a rioter, and a disturber of the 
general peace. In the slaughter of babes (if I may extend 
the use of this word) he ‘‘out-herods Herod.” He sneaks into 
the nests of smaller birds, sucking their eggs, or killing their 
young (of which he often eats the brains, but leaves the rest), 
‘and spreading sorrow wherever he goes. In the stealing of 
grain, he rivals the Crow. He even sneaks into the store- 
house, and like a rat, devours the corn there. As a leader of 
riots, though a coward, he does not hesitate occasionally to 
tease the hawks (for which, says Wilson, he sometimes pays 
dearly), or to take advantage of the owls, when confused by 
the daylight, to heap insults upon them. As a disturber of 
the general peace, he delights to spread terror among other 
birds by imitating the cries of hawks, or to deceive them by 
pretending distress ; no less often do his cries disturb man, and 
drown the sweet melodies which one might otherwise hear in 
all our woods and groves. On account of his bad habits, his 
noisiness, his fine colors and crest, he is frequently shot; and 
the number of Jays near Boston has lately, I think, materially 
diminished, whereas the cunning Crows much less often fall 
victims to the revenge of their numerous enemies. 
The Blue Jays are residents in Massachusetts through all 
the seasons, but in winter are somewhat rare, as they also are 
to the northward, even during summer. They are gregarious 
throughout a greater part of the year, but are necessarily more 
or less separated, as is always the case during the breeding- 
season. They are, like the Crows, omnivorous, but they have 
