THE BIRDS THAT WE SEE. 
7G1 
Veiy often it helped him in the pur¬ 
suit of game, occasionally it did him 
essential service, though, perhaps, as of¬ 
ten, he found himself betrayed by this 
ever busy marplot. 
The ordinary note of the blue jay is 
the “ above described, but this 
sound is used in so many different ways 
and wth such a variety of intonations 
that it answers for a score of expres¬ 
sions. When calling to his mate he 
utters a sort of song, suggesting the 
words “sirrootel, sirrootel.” It is a soft. 
jay himself, trying to frighten me from 
ins nest, by simulating the voice and 
action of a l)ird that he himself held in 
mortal dread. 
In each of these instances the first 
sign of the l)ird’s presence was its note, 
and in most cases it will be found that 
the eai’, rather than the eye, was the 
guide of our naturalist. Before enter¬ 
ing the low woods whence the blue jay 
came, there fell upon his ready ear a 
low, simple song like “ clieedle, chee- 
dle, chickadee, dee, dee, dee,'' and again 
a little bird appeared, announcing his 
own name. Out of the evergreen cov¬ 
ert he darted, chasing his merry com¬ 
panions or flitting about among the 
low thickets and scrambling along the 
branches, heels up, or head up, with 
ecpial indifference. This is the bright, 
pert, little chickadee, the commonest 
of the tomtits that live in the colder 
parts of the great forest, and the one of 
all others, that, via the nursery rhyme, 
is forcing his way upAvard into our seri¬ 
ous literature. 
“ Chickadee dee, chickadee dee," he 
sings again and again, as he clambers 
about close at hand, Avith a confidence 
that has won for him the friendshijD of 
the children everywhere. Not a boy 
in the rustic homes about but knows 
this merry note of the black - capped 
bird, yet scarcely one suspects that the 
t. 
Blue Jay. 
musical refrain, and seems not to come 
from the same throat as the louder “yay, 
jay." 
But his talent for mimicry is so great 
that it is impossible to catalogue all his 
notes, original and adopted. On one 
occasion, I had cHmbed to a blue jay’s 
nest, Avithout once seeing the OAvner. 
I did not hear even the usual harsh 
threatening, but I did hear, over my 
head, the loud screaming of the red¬ 
tailed liaAvk, and became aware that 
immediately over the tree, the screamer 
was sailing to and fro. At length, a 
nearer approach and a better vieAV en¬ 
abled me to discover that this scream¬ 
ing redtail Avas none other than the blue 
The Chickadee and his Song. 
VoL. XIII.—71 
