192 
BLUE JAY. 
truly to sympathize with each other,) and he is sometimes at- 
tacked with such spirit, as to be under the necessity of making 
a speedy 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 Schuyl- 
kill ; where I saw him engaged for more than five minutes pur- 
suing what I took to be a species of Motacilla, wheeling, dart- 
ing, 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 magazine is frozen up, 
buried in snow, or perhaps exhausted, he becomes very vora- 
cious, and will make a meal of whatever carrion or other ani- 
mal 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 proneness for which is 
probably often occasioned by the wants and irritations of neces- 
sity. 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 possession 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,- 1 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 neighbour 
to subside. Accordingly, in a few minutes, after displaying 
various threatening gestures, (like some of those Indians we 
