DEOLLERIES OF THE WOODS. 
181 
into their midst — hsil lial — wliat a scurrying! Silence in- 
stantaneous, and how profound ! 
Whither have the brave and clamorous champions of the 
old wood fled ? Gone ! gone ! — ^not a blue coat or a brag- 
gart top-knot to be seen — ah me ! It is. a deceitful world, 
and valor is a most deceitful virtue. 
The Blue Jay is the very Falstaff of heroes, and Jack was 
never more ready — aye faith, than Jay — to fight nine knights 
in Buckram-green, and with his dinted sword to make loud 
boasts thereof. But our knave has fun in him as well ; 
therefore we can afford him seeming pardon, for never Merry 
Andrew took a kick so well. It almost seems a sin to be so 
serious with him, and yet the fellow has enough of ugly mis- 
chief in him too. His long list of accomplishments, begin- 
ning at braggart and poltroon, may most properly be wound 
up with dandy and thief. He is that very Prince of dandies 
that, in olden times, was generally called Popinjay, and 
which has been modernized into Grammont, Brummel, or 
D'Orsay. He is certainly the most felicitous specimen of the 
exquisite that ever wore plumes, whether borrowed or not. 
The natural inference would be, that they were borrowed 
from his inveterate propensity for pilfering from his neigh- 
bors, but that the beauty of the plumage which really be- 
longs to him, relieves him from the imputation of any such 
necessity. 
See him, of a fine Spring morning, in love-making time ! 
■ — and oh ! ye comely gallants, ye swash-buckler knights, 
that haunt about the environs of gay Dan Cupid's court, 
away with your swelling airs, you fanfaronade of mincing 
courtesies, and dainty terms — ye are all eclipsed — away ! 
The transcendent graces of yon blue-plumed Euphuist of the 
acorn tree, doth so utterly surpass ye all, that your diminish- 
ed heads were best hidden now, in very shame. See him 
raise up and down upon the mossy limb, his gay crest bent 
in quick and frequent salutation, while a rich, round, thril- 
ling love-note, rolls liquidly from off his honeyed tongue. 
