The Blue Jay 
By WILLIAM BUTCHER 
President of the National Association of Audubon Societies 
Jl^ational ^^oociation of Audubon ^ocietiegi 
EDUCATIONAL LEAFLET NO. 22 
'^And startle from his ashen spray, 
Across the glen, the screaming Jay.” 
It certainly is a tyro in bird study who does not know this noisy braggart 
fellow with his inquisitive ways. Such characteristics usually repel, but in 
the case of the Blue Jay they rather attract, and no one can help admiring 
this conspicuous member of the Corvine family. He has all the cunning of 
his somber-hued cousins the Crows, but not their sedateness; he is life and 
activity personified. 
Another member of this family, the Magpie, attracted the notice of both 
Aristotle and Pliny, the former of whom says, "the Pica oftentimes changes 
its notes, for almost every day it utters different cries. When acorns grow 
scarce, it gathers them and keeps them hidden in store." The first statement 
refers undoubtedly to the power that the Magpies and Jays have of imitat- 
ing the notes of other birds. The habit of storing food is also practiced by 
the American members of the family. 
Pliny says, "not only do they learn, but they delight to talk, and, medi- 
tating carefully and thoughtfully within themselves, hide not their earnest- 
ness. They are known to have died when overcome by difficulty in a word, 
and, should they not hear the same things constantly, to have failed in their 
memory, and while recalling them to be cheered up in wondrous wise, if 
meanwhile they have heard that word. Nor is their beauty of an ordinary 
sort, though not considerable to the eye; for them it is enough honour to 
have a kind of human speech. However people deny that others are able to 
learn, save those belonging to the group which lives on acorns — and of these 
again those with the greatest ease which have five toes upon each of their 
feet; nor even they except during the first two years of life." 
These two curious and interesting bits of ancient natural history show 
conclusively that the present interest in nature is by no means new. 
Audubon, although he admired the beauty of the Blue Jay, did not give 
him a good reputation as the following pen picture shows; "Reader, look at 
the plate on which are represented three individuals of this beautiful species, 
— rogues though they be, and thieves, as I would call them, were it fit for 
me to pass judgment on their actions. See how each is enjoying the fruits 
of his knavery, sucking the egg which he has pilfered from the nest of some 
innocent Dove or harmless Partridge. Who could imagine that a form so 
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