BLUE JAY. 
259 
Mr Bartram relates an instance of tlie jay’s sagacity, 
worthy of remark. “ Having 1 caught a jay in the 
winter season,” says he, “ I turned him loose in the 
green-house, and fed him with corn, (zea, maize,) the 
heart of which they are very fond of. This grain being 
ripe and hard, the bird at first found a difficulty in 
breaking it, as it would start from his bill when he 
struck it. After looking about, and, as if considering 
for a moment, he picked up his grain, carried and 
placed it close up in a corner on the shelf, between the 
wall and a plant box, where, being confined on three 
'sides, he soon effected his purpose, and continued 
afterwards to make use of this same practical expedient. 
The jay,” continues this judicious observer, “ is one of 
the most useful agents in the economy of nature, for 
disseminating forest trees, and other ruciferous and 
hard-seeded vegetables on which they feed. Their 
chief employment, during the autumnal season, is 
foraging to supply their winter stores. In performing 
this necessary duty, they drop abundance of seed in 
their flight over fields, hedges, and by fences, where 
they alight to deposit them in the post holes, &c. It 
is remarkable what numbers of young trees rise up 
in fields and pastures after a wet winter and spring. 
These birds alone are capable, in a few years’ time, to 
replant all the cleared lands.” * 
The blue jays seldom associate in any considerable 
numbers, except in the months of September and 
October, when they hover about, in scattered parties of 
from forty to fifty, visiting the oaks, in search of their 
favourite acorns. At this season they are less shy than 
usual, and keep chattering to each other in a variety of 
strange and querulous notes. I have counted fifty-three, 
but never more, at one time ; and these generally 
following each other in straggling irregularly from one 
range of woods to another. Yet we are told by the 
learned Dr Latham, — and his statement has been copied 
into many respectable European publications, — that the 
* Letter of Mr William Bartram to the author. 
