Concord, Mass.
1910.
May 21
[May 21, 1910]

Nest of Blue Jay.
I touch the bird on the nest.

  As I was on my way to the Farm from Ball's Hill, on
May 18th, I saw a Blue Jay sitting on her nest in a small
white pine within 20 feet of the road where it dips down
into the hollow just this side of Bensen's. To-day I
visited the nest in company with the Misses Dexter. The
bird was on sitting with her tail projecting over one side
of the nest and her bill pointing upward at an angle of
45 [degrees] over the opposite rim. We stood directly beneath her for
several minutes, talking, without disturbing her. Then by
standing on tip-toe I reached up and touched her tail with
my fingers at first stroking its underside gently, then rubbing
it hard finally pushing it up and sideways with some
violence. I failed in this was to elicit any mark of alarm or
even notice on the part of the bird; but when one of the Dexter's
attempted to touch her bill she bounded up into the air &
flew off with a loud scream.
  A flock of six Blue Jays ranged back & forth over the whole
farm & neighboring woodlands through the entire forenoon screaming
loudly & giving the Hawk [?]. They sounded like a band of newly arrived migrants.
A noisy flock of Jays