NESTLINGS OF FOREST AND MARSH 
sweet, low coaxing with which I have heard 
him woo his mate at four o’clock in the 
morning, and afterwards soothe his beloved 
nestlings. For 
a blue jay can 
be gentle, and 
no bird of my 
acquaintance is 
such a devoted 
father. Robins 
will sometimes 
abandon their 
Nest and eggs of the jay • r i 
young ir the lat- 
ter are maimed, and I have 
known them to refuse to feed a 
blind nestling after he had left 
the home tree. But blue jays defend and 
care for their own kind. There is an esprit de 
corps in the entire family which leads them to 
stand by each other, — a jolly good fellow- 
ship, as it were. Two robins may quarrel, 
two orioles often do, but blue jays never. 
If a young jay is taken from” one nest and 
placed in another, he receives the same care 
184 
