Cyanocitta crist at a . 
Lobster Lake, Piscataquis Co., Maine. 
1899. In regard to the manners and customs of Bluejays I found that 
Sept. not only owl -baiting but the far more dangerous sport of 
hawk-baiting was extremely popular among them. No doubt it 
is the regular habit of a jay; but I hugely admired the 
"sarse" of one bluejay who all alone worried an agile sharp- 
shinned hawk by the hour at a time. The precise method of 
the sport appeared to be this:- A hawk being perched high 
upon a dead elm tree above a shrubby marsh at the border of 
lake and woods; this Jay would promptly perch beside him upon 
a nearby bough in apparent obliviousness. The Hawk would 
sometimes turn his back to the Jay; the Jay to the Hawk - al- 
most shoulder to shoulder. In about fifteen seconds the Hawk 
without so much as a preliminary ruffling or quiver would 
pounce at the Jay. The Jay with a scream, the Hawk with a 
guttural (literally a "hawking") sort of snarl would dash 
through the neighborhood for thirty seconds, when sullenly 
the Hawk would return to his perch, followed by the Jay, none 
the wiser or the worse. This sport (sometimes with several 
Jays ) went on almost anywhere in the woods and all the time. 
Copied from a letter to William Brewster 
Reg inal d C . Ro b b ins , dat ed 
Boston, Mass 
• 5 
Sept . 23 , 1399 . 
