ECONOMY OF THE JAY. 
blessing from the wrong side of the month. The deep snow is 
raked away, and the camp is pitched beneath the gloomy shelter 
of the heaving pines. Scarcely has the odour of the fireroast 
streamed through the air, and freighted every biting wind, when, 
with hungry cries from every side, the jays come gathering in. 
They swarm about the camp in hundreds, and such is their 
audacity when hard pinched with hunger, that they are fre- 
quently seen to dash at the meat roasting before the fire, and 
hot as it is, tear pieces off till they can cool it in the snow. 
They are regarded with singular aversion by these lonely men ; 
for take what precautions they may, they are often robbed to 
such serious extent by their persevering depredations, as to be 
, reduced to great suffering. They dare not leave any article that 
can be carrried off, within their reach ; when they kill game, 
and leave it hung up till the hunt is over, the jays assemble in 
thousands, and frequently tear it in pieces before they return. 
“The blue jay has many of the habits of the magpie, and, like 
him, possesses an inveterate propensity for hiding everything he 
can lay hold of in the shape of food. The magpie hides things 
that are of no value, but a jay is in every respect a utilitarian, 
and when, after feeding to repletion, he is seen to busy himself 
for hours in sticking an acorn here, a beech-nut there, in a dark 
hole, or wedging snails between the splinters of some lightning- 
shivered trunk, or making deposits beneath the sides of decaying 
logs, naturalists wonder what he is doing it for. But our Eu- 
phuist knows well enough, and you may rest assured, if you see 
him along that way next winter, as you will be apt to do if you 
watch, you will find that he has not forgotten the place of one 
single deposit ; and that, with a shrewder economy than the 
ant or the squirrel, instead of heaping up his winter store in 
one granary, where a single accident may deprive him of it all, 
he has scattered it here and there, in a thousand different 
spots, the record of which is kept in his own memory. So it 
cannot be doubted, whatever may be said of his thieving and 
other dubious propensities, that the blue jay is a decidedly 
sagacious personage.” 
The negro slaves in the Southern States regard this bird 
with singular superstition. They believe the jay is the 
special agent of the dark gentleman below, and that it carries 
all manner of slanderous tales to him, especially concerning 
“ niggers,” and also supplies the fuel to burn them with. 
Hence they are regarded with deadly animosity by the blacks. 
Says Webber, “ When I was a boy, I caught many of them 
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