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THE BLUE JAY. 



"^ Garrulus cristatus, Linn. 

 PLATE CCXXXI Male and Females. 



Reader, look at the plate in which are represented three individuals of 

 this beautiful species, — rogues though they be, and thieves, as I would call 

 them, were it fit for me to pass judgment on their actions. See how each is 

 enjoying the fruits of his knavery, sucking the egg which he has pilfered 

 from the nest of some innocent Dove or harmless Partridge! Who could 

 imagine that a form so graceful, arrayed by nature in a garb so resplendent, 

 should harbour so much mischief; — that selfishness, duplicity, and malice 

 should form the moral accompaniments of so much physical perfection! 

 Yet so it is, and how like beings of a much higher order, are these gay 

 deceivers! Aye, I could write you a whole chapter on this subject, were 

 not my task of a different nature. 



The Blue Jay is one of those birds that are found capable of subsisting in 

 cold as well as in warm climates. It occurs as far north as the Canadas, 

 where it makes occasional attacks upon the corn cribs of the farmers, and it 

 is found in the most southern portions of the United States, where it abounds 

 during the winter. Every where it manifests the same mischievous dispo- 

 sition. It imitates the cry of the Sparrow Hawk so perfectly, that the little 

 birds in the neighbourhood hurry into the thick coverts, to avoid what they 

 believe to be the attack of that marauder. It robs every nest it can find, 

 sucks the eggs like the Crow, or tears to pieces and devours the young birds. 

 A friend once wounded a Grouse ( Tetrao umbellus), and marked the direc- 

 tion which it followed, but had not proceeded two hundred yards in pursuit, 

 when he heard something fluttering in the bushes, and found his bird 

 belaboured by two Blue Jays, who were picking out its eyes. The same 

 person once put a Flying Squirrel into the cage of one of these birds, merely 

 to preserve it for one night; but on looking into the cage about eleven o'clock 

 next day, he found the animal partly eaten. A Blue Jay at Charleston 

 destroyed all the birds of an aviary. One after another had been killed, and 

 the rats were supposed to have been the culprits, but no crevice could be 

 seen large enough to admit one. Then the mice were accused, and war was 

 waged against them, but still the birds continued to be killed; first the 

 smaller, then the larger, until at length the Keywest Pigeons; when it was 



