230 



THE JAY. 



ringdove. All these birds feed voraciously on the 

 acorn ; and, with the exception of the two last men- 

 tioned, they bury it in the ground, not in hoarded 

 heaps, but separately, here and there, as fancy may 

 direct them. 



When the snows of winter have fairly set in, and 

 thus prevented the jay from finding a supply of 

 acorns amongst the fallen leaves in the woods, it is 

 then seen flitting from hedge to hedge in the vicinity 

 of pea and bean stacks, where it may be observed 

 clinging to the sides of these in quest of uncovered 

 pods ; and thus it acquires part of its scanty pro- 

 vender, "till the vernal suns and showers" have dis^ 

 solved the accumulated snow, and cleared its former 

 haunts. To these it returns once more, and con- 

 sumes myriads of insects in comparative safety. But 

 when the fatal season of peas and ripe cherries 

 arrives, scarcely any thing short of death can deter 

 this unfortunate bird from participating in the prof- 

 fered feast. The gardener, in discharging his gun 

 at it, is sure to make bad worse by his officious in- 

 terference ; for, in his eagerness to kill the poor 

 bird, he never once reflects that the contents of his 

 piece do ten times more harm to the fruit and to 

 the tender shoots of the cherry tree, than the 

 dreaded presence of half a dozen jays, all with 

 empty stomachs. 



Towards the end of April, when nature smiles 

 around, and the woods begin to expand their open- 

 ing bloom, he who loves to wander through them, 

 in quest of ornithological adventures, will sometimes 

 hear a profusion of imitative tones not far from the 



