136 
BLUE JAY. 
liimself to fligbt, is followed by tlie whole train of his persecutors, until 
driven beyond the boundaries of their jurisdiction. 
But the Blue Jay himself is not guiltless of similar depredations 
■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 hedge-rows, 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 sympathize with each other), and he is sometimes 
attacked with such spirit, as to be under the necessity of making a 
Bpeedy 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, by the escape of his 
■intended prey. In times of great extremity, when his hoard or maga- 
zine 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. 
There are, however, individual exceptions to this general character 
for plunder and outrage, a pronenoss for which is probably often occa- 
sioned by the wants and irritations of necessity. A Blue Jay, which I 
have kept for some time, and with whom I am on terms of familiarity, 
is in reality a very notable example of mildness of disposition, and 
sociability of manners. An accident in the 'woods first put me in pos- 
session of this bird, while in full plumage, and in high health and 
spirits ; I carried him home with me, and put him into a cage already 
occupied by a Gold-winged Woodpecker, where he was saluted with such 
rudeness, and received such a drubbing from the lord of the manor, for 
entering his premises, that, to save his life, I was obliged to take him 
out again. I then put him into another cage, where the only tenant 
was a female Orchard Oriole. She also put on airs of alarm, as if she 
considered herself endangered and insulted by the intrusion ; the Jay, 
meanwhile, sat mute and motionless on the bottom of the cage, either 
dubious of his own situation, or willing to allow time for the fears of his 
neighbor to subside. Accordingly, in a few minutes, after displaying 
various threatening gestures (like some of those Indians we read of, in 
their first interviews with the whites), she began to make her approaches, 
but with great circumspection, and readiness for retreat. Seeing, how- 
ever, the Jay begin to pick up some crumbs of broken chestnuts, in a 
