110 
THE BLUE JAY. 
Garrulus cristatus, Linn. 
PLATE COXXXI. — Male and Females. 
Reader, look at the plate in 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 graceful, arrayed by nature in a garb so resplen- 
dent, should harbour so much mischief ; — that selfishness, duplicity, and 
malice should form the moral accompaniments of so much physical perfec- 
tion ! Yet so it is, and how like beings of a much higher order, are these 
gay deceivers ! Aye, I could write you a whole chapter on this subject, 
were not my task of a different nature. 
The Blue Jay is one of those birds that are found capable of subsisting in 
cold as well as in warm climates. It occurs as far north as the Canadas, 
where it makes occasional attacks upon the corn cribs of the farmers, and it 
is found in the most southern portions of the United States, where it abounds 
during the winter. Everywhere it manifests the same mischievous dispo- 
sition. It imitates the cry of the Sparrow Hawk so perfectly, that the little 
birds in the neighbourhood hurry into the thick coverts, to avoid what they 
believe to be the attack of that marauder. It robs every nest it can find, 
sucks the eggs like the Crow, or tears to pieces and devours the young birds. 
A friend once wounded a Grouse ( Tetrao umbellus), and marked the direc- 
tion which it followed, but had not proceeded two hundred yards in pur- 
suit, when he heard something fluttering in the bushes, and found his bird 
belaboured by two Blue Jays, who were picking out its eyes. The same 
person once put a Flying Squirrel into the cage of one of these birds, merely 
to preserve it for one night; but on looking into the cage about eleven 
o’clock next day, he found the animal partly eaten. A Blue Jay at Charleston 
destroyed all the birds of an aviary. One after another had been killed, 
and the rats were supposed to have been the culprits, but no crevice could be 
seen large enough to admit one. Then the mice were accused, and war was 
waged against them, but still the birds continued to be killed ; first the 
smaller, then the larger, until at length the Keywest Pigeons ; when it was 
