270 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 
Esq., of Moorestown, New Jersey, told me that while fishing 
in a birch canoe on the lakes in the interior of the State of 
Maine, in the latter part of the summer of 1833, the Jays were 
so fearless as to alight in one end of his bark, while he sat 
in the other, and help themselves to his bait, taking very little 
notice of him. 
“The lumberers or woodcutters of this State frequently 
amuse themselves in their camp during their eating hours with 
what they call ‘ transporting the carrion bird.’ This is done 
by cutting a pole eight or ten feet in length, and balancing it 
on the sill of their hut, the end outside the entrance being 
baited with a piece of flesh of any kind. Immediately on see- 
ing the tempting morsel, the Jays alight on it, and while they 
are busily engaged in devouring it, a wood-cutter gives a smart 
blow to the end of the pole within the hut, which seldom fails 
to drive the birds high in the air, and not unfrequently kills 
them. ‘They even enter the camps, and would fain eat from 
the hands of the men while at their meals. They-are easily 
caught in any kind of trap. My friend, the Rev. Joun Bacu- 
MAN, informed me that when residing in the State of New York, 
he found one caught in a snare which had been set with many 
others for the common Partridge or ‘ Quail,’ one of which the 
Jay had commenced eating before he was himself caught. 
“In the winter they are troublesome to the hunters, espec- 
ially when the ground is thickly covered with snow, and food. 
consequently scarce, for, at such a time, they never meet with 
a Deer or Moose hung on a tree, without mutilating it as much 
as in their power. In the Bay of Fundy I observed, several 
mornings in succession, a Canada Jay watching the departure 
of a Crow from her nest, after she had deposited an egg. 
When the Crow flew off, the cunning Jay immediately repaired 
to the nest, and carried away the egg. I have heard it said 
that the Canada Jay sometimes destroys the young of other 
birds of its species, for the purpose of feeding its own with 
them; but not having witnessed such an act, I cannot vouch 
for the truth of the report, which indeed appears to me too 
monstrous to be credited. 
