408 
STELLER’S JAY. 
their bill tear it to pieces, swallowing each piece separately. 
Nevertheless, they give the preference to grains or fruits.. 
The northern species are wary and provident, collecting stores 
of food for the winter. They are very petulant ; their motions 
quick and abrupt, and tlieir sensations lively. When alarmed, 
by the appearance of a dog, fox, or other living or dead object, 
they rally together by a peculiar note, as if they would impose 
upon it by their numbers and disagreeable noise. When on 
the ground, they display great activity ; or if on trees, they 
are continually leaping about from branch to branch, and 
hardly ever alight on dead or naked ones. They are gene- 
rally met with in forests, seldom in open plains ; their favour- 
ite resort is among the closest and thickest woods. Less sus- 
picious and cunning than the crows, or even the magpies, they 
may be decoyed into snares and taken in great numbers, espe- 
cially by imitating the voice of one of their own species in 
difficulties, or by forcing a captive individual to cry. They 
live in families, or by pairs, the greater portion of the year ; 
and though considerable numbers may be seen travelling at 
once, they always keep at intervals from each other, and never 
in close flocks like the crows. They are easily tamed, and are 
susceptible of attachment; learn readily to articulate words, 
and imitate the cries of different animals. They have a trou- 
blesome propensity to purloin and conceal small objects not 
useful to themselves, and as jewels and precious metals are 
peculiarly apt to attract their notice, they have been the cause, 
when kept as pets, of serious mischief. Every one is familiar 
wdth the story of the thieving magpie, become so celebrated 
by the music of Rossini, and which is founded on fact. 
The jays breed in woods, forests, orchards, preferring old 
and very shaded trees, placing their nests in the centre against 
the body, or at the bifurcation of large limbs. The nest is 
built without art, and is formed of twigs and roots, whose ca- 
pillary fibres serve as a lining inside ; the eggs are from four 
to six. The old ones keep the food for their young in the 
oesophagus, whence they can bring it up when wanted. The 
