BLUE JAY. 3 



discovers your approach than he sets up a sudden and 

 vehement outcry, flying off, and screaming with all his might, 

 as if he called the whole feathered tribes of the neighbour- 

 hood to witness some outrageous usage he had received. 

 When he hops undisturbed among the high branches of the 

 oak and hickory, they become soft and musical ; and his calls 

 of the female, a stranger would readily mistake for the re- 

 peated screakings of an ungreased wheelbarrow. All these he 

 accompanies with various nods, jerks, and other gesticulations, 

 for which the whole tribe of jays are so remarkable, that, 

 with some other peculiarities, they might have very well 

 justified the great Swedish naturalist in forming them into a 

 separate genus by themselves.* 



The blue jay builds a large nest, frequently in the cedar, 



* This has now been done ; and modern ornithologists adopt the 

 title Garrulus, of Brisson, for this distinct and very well defined group, 

 containing many species, which agree intimately in their general form 

 and habits, and are dispersed over every quarter of the world, New 

 Holland excepted. The colours of their plumage are brown, gray, blue, 

 and black ; in some distributed with sober chastity, while, in others, 

 the deep tints and decided markings rival the richest gems. 



Proud of coerulean stains, 

 From heaven's unsullied arch purloined, the jay 

 Screams hoarse. Gisboenb's Walks in a Forest. 



In geographical distribution, we find those of splendid plumage fol- 

 lowing the warmer climates, and associating there with our ideas of 

 Eastern magnificence ; while the more sober dressed, and, in our opinion, 

 not the least pleasing, range through more temperate and northern 

 regions, or those exalted tracts in tropical countries where all the pro- 

 ductions in some' manner receive the impress of an alpine or northern 

 station. This is nowhere better exemplified than in the specimens 

 lately sent to this country from the lofty and extensive plains of the 

 Himalaya, where we have already met with prototypes of the European 

 jay, black and green woodpeckers, greater titmouse, and nutcracker. 

 They inhabit woody districts ; in their dispositions are cunning, bold, 

 noisy, active, and restless, but docile and easily tamed when introduced 

 to the care of man, and are capable of being taught tricks and various 

 sounds. The following instance of the latter propensity is thus related 

 by Bewick : — " We have heard one imitate the sound made by the 

 action of a saw, so exactly, that though it was on a Sunday, we could 

 hardly be persuaded that the person who kept it had not a carpenter 



