3/ 
Jays 
ca^^-ing 
bread 
On each morning four Jays came soon after sunrise 
and remained an hour or more. During this time 4m each 
occasion they made away with nearly half a loaf of bread . 
This had been broken up rather finely and thrown out on the 
snow under the window. The Jays ate a little of it but 
carried off the rest, filling their throats and bills just 
as the Canada Jays do and taking their loads into a 
neighboring orchard (about 30 yards from the house) where 
they buried most of them in the ground, depositing a small 
part, however, behind scales of loose hark or in small 
holes or crevices of the old apple and pear trees. The 
fragments hidden in the ground were scattered about over 
spaces where the wind had drifted away the snow. Some were 
merely thrust carelessly under fallen leaves or tufts of 
grass, others were driven into the ground by repeated power¬ 
ful strokes of the birds’ bills; the pieces placed in trees 
were almost invariably tamped firmly down before they were 
left. 
The Jays were very tame and our presence at the 
windows did not seem to disturb them in the least. It was 
a beautiful sight to see them hopping about on the snow 
bank, picking up the crumbs within two or three yards of 
us. They seemed to be quite free from jealousy and selfish¬ 
ness and I did not once see one of them interfere with or 
threaten another, although all four were often collecting 
their loads at the same time on a space less than a yard 
square. 
/? 
