48 
MEMOIR OP 
the viralency of a Billingsgate mob ; the owl, mean- 
while, returning every compliment with a broad 
goggling stare. The war becomes louder and louder, 
and the owl at length, forced to betake himself to 
flight, is followed by his whole train of persecutors, 
until driven beyond the boundaries of their juris- 
diction. 
“ 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 circumstances seem 
truly to sympathise with each other), and he is 
sometimes attacked with such spirit as to he under 
the necessity of making a speedy retreat.” 
“ He is not only hold and vociferous, hut pos- 
sesses a considerable talent for mimicry, and seems 
to enjoy great satisfaction in mocking and teasing 
other birds, particularly the little hawk (P. sparve- 
rius ), imitating his cry wherever he sees him, and 
squealing out as if caught : this soon brings a num- 
ber of his own tribe around him, who all join in the 
frolic, darting about the hawk, and feigning the 
cries of a bird sorely wounded, and already under 
the clutches of its devourer ; while others lie con- 
cealed in bushes, ready to second their associates in 
