202 
NATURE STUDY. 
fat until thoroughly covered and then flew away. In that 
way this pair took their breakfast. 
My ten blue birds were blessed with good appetites and if 
given what they liked best would carry away a large amount 
in a short time. They were very fond of the trimmings of 
steak and other pieces of suet but lean meat was not to 
their fancies. They came for their daily meal about eight 
in the morning, and though they took occasional lunches 
during the day, they never called for food except in the 
morning. If their call of “Jay, Jay” did not bring their 
food promptly, some of the bolder ones would pick on the 
window panes with their bills, and stormy mornings they 
came some earlier and went away hastily. One pleasant 
day I noticed my flock in some trees near the house. It 
seemed to be a social gathering where each bird did some¬ 
thing for amusement. Some were preening their feath¬ 
ers, others were hopping from branch to branch uttering 
their weird call, and others were busy picking something 
from the trees. I determined to find out what it was and 
so on examining the tree on which they were at work, I 
found eggs of the Tent Moth encircling the tender branches. 
One great point scored by my blue bird friend. 
The birds were not nearly as pugnacious toward the En¬ 
glish Sparrows or toward each other as I have seen many 
other birds appear. Soon after the middle of February I 
noticed different notes in his call and I found, too, when 
he uttered these, he moved up and down on the branch 
where he rested. It seemed as if the rising and falling 
helped him in the utterance of them. It is a call peculiar 
to himself and and not one he makes to mimic other birds. 
My birds were slender and graceful when first they came, 
but before winter had nearly gone, many had grown quite 
portly and assumed a kind of dignity peculiar to fleshy peo¬ 
ple. As the warm days of April came they returned less 
and less frequently, and at last, toward the middle of the 
