BLUE JAY. 
257 
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 golden-winged woodpecker 
(picus auratus ,) where he was saluted with suGh rude- 
ness, and received such a drubbing from the lord of the 
manor, for entering his premises, that, to save his life, 
I was obliged to take him out again. I then put him 
into another cage, where the only tenant was a female 
oriolns spurius (bastard baltimore.) 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 read of in their 
first interviews with the whites,) she began to make 
her approaches, but with great circumspection, and 
readiness for retreat. Seeing, however, the jay begin 
to pick up some crumbs of broken chestnuts, in a 
humble and peaceable way, she also descended, and 
began to do the same ; but, at the slightest motion of 
her new guest, wheeled round, and put herself on 
the defensive. All this ceremonious jealousy vanished 
before evening ; and they now roost together, feed, and 
play together, in perfect harmony and good humour, 
when the jay goes to drink, his messmate very impu- 
dently jumps into the saucer to wash herself, throwing 
the water in showers over her companion, who bears 
it all patiently ; venturing now and then to take a sip 
between every splash, without betraying the smallest 
token of irritation. On the contrary, he seems to take 
pleasure in his little fellow-prisoner, allowing her to 
pick (which she does very gently) about his whiskers, 
and to clean his claws from the minute fragments of 
chestnuts which happen to adhere to them. This 
attachment on the one part, and mild condescension 
on the other, may, perhaps, be partly the effect of 
mutual misfortunes, which are found not only to knit 
VOL. i. r 9 
