BLUE JAY. 5 



summons the whole feathered fraternity to his assistance, who 

 surround the glimmering solitaire, and attack him from all 

 sides, raising such a shout as may be heard, in a still da}', 

 more than half a mile off. When, in my hunting excursions, 

 I have passed near this scene of tumult, I have imagined to 

 myself that I heard the insulting party venting their respective 

 charges with all the virulency of a Billingsgate mob ; the owl, 

 meanwhile returning every compliment with a broad goggling 

 stare. The war becomes louder and louder, and the owl at 

 length, forced to betake himself to flight, is followed by his 

 whole train of persecutors, until driven beyond the boundaries 

 of their jurisdiction. 



But the blue jay himself is not guiltless of similar depreda- 

 tions with the owl, and becomes in his turn the very tyrant he 

 detested, when he sneaks through the woods, as he frequently 

 does, and among the thickets and hedgerows, plundering 

 every nest he can find of its eggs, tearing up the callow young 

 by piecemeal, and spreading alarm and sorrow around him. 

 The cries of the distressed parents soon bring together a 

 number of interested spectators (for birds in such circum- 

 stances seem truly to sympathise with each other), and he is 

 sometimes attacked with such spirit as to be under the neces- 

 sity of making a speedy retreat. 



He will sometimes assault small birds, with the intention of 

 killing and devouring them ; an instance of which I myself 

 once witnessed, over a piece of woods near the borders of 

 Schuylkill ; where I saw him engaged for more than five 

 minutes pursuing what I took to be a species of Motacilla, 

 wheeling, darting, and doubling in the air, and at last, to 

 my great satisfaction, got disappointed, in the escape of his 

 intended prey. In times of great extremity, when his hoard 

 or magazine is frozen up, buried in snow, or perhaps exhausted, 

 he becomes very voracious, and will make a meal of whatever 

 carrion or other animal substance comes in the way, and has 

 been found regaling himself on the bowels of a robin in less 

 than five minutes after it was shot. 



