1889. 
Maine. 
L. Umbagog. 
We spent the greater part of one day in foilov/mg them 
in order to ascertain what they did with the great quantity 
of food which they carried off. We supposed that we should 
find them hoarding lt^somew-ssse m^sTIzo 11 ow tree or similar 
place; but this proved not to be the case. On the contrary, 
they took it various distances and to various places, rarely 
or never, so far as'we could ascertain, depositing two loads 
in the same place. They would place a mouthful of oat meal 
perhaps on the horizontal branch of a large hemlock, three or 
foun crumbs of bread o q tl^e^ rotch of a dead stub, a large 
piece of bread on the -foJilc-4-igktr twigs of living fir. On one 
A ■'V- 
occasion we saw one deposit four beans carefully on the top 
of an old squirrel's nest high up in an arbor vitae tree. My 
men climbed to a number of places where the birds were seen 
leaving their load in order to make sure that they really did 
this. Sometimes they went only two or three hundred yards 
back into the woods behind the camp; at others we followed 
them for upwards of a mile. They were very sly about making 
their deposits, and, if they saw us watching , would either 
drop their loads or fly on until ou of sight. They had,how¬ 
ever, two regular roads which they followed, and their depos¬ 
its were made^alonp the line of one or the other of these. 
Ort these roads they had regular resting-places in which they 
alighted for an instant before pushing on. These resting- 
places were ordinarily about one hundred yards apart, While 
at work they were very sly as a rule, rarely uttering more 
than a low, scolding note, but if displeased or disappointed, 
as, for instance, when the food was covered, by a blanket, 
they would fly up into the trees above the cramp and scream 
in shrill and apparently angry tones for several seconds at 
a time. 
After these jays had been working steadily for about a 
week, a third appeared. He was evidently a stranger and was 
regarded with dislike and suspicion by the other two who ne¬ 
glected no opportunity to bully him to the utmost-. As a 
rule, he submitted to this treatment very mildly, waiting 
until the other birds were gone, and then taking his turn, 
father curiously he followed the same route however as the 
others, anc apparently deposited his loads in very much 
the same places. 
2 / 
