48 
STELLER’S JAY. 
their bill tear it to pieces, swallowing each piece separately. 
Nevertheless they give the preference to grains or fruits. The 
northern species are wary and provident, collecting stores of 
food for the winter. They are very petulant; their motions 
quick and abrupt, and their sensations lively. When alarmed by 
the appearance of a dog, fox, or other living or dead object, they 
rally together by a peculiar note, as if they would impose upon 
it by their numbers and disagreeable noise. When on the ground, 
they display great activity; or if on trees, they are continually 
leaping about from branch to branch, and hardly ever alight on 
dead or naked ones. They are generally met with in forests, 
seldom in open plains; their favourite resort is among the closest 
and thickest woods. Less suspicious and cunning than the Crows, 
or even the Magpies, they may be decoyed into snares and taken 
in great numbers, especially by imitating the voice of one of their 
own species in difficulties, or by forcing a captive individual to 
cry. They live in families, or by pairs, the greater portion of 
the year; and though considerable numbers may be seen travelling 
at once, they always keep at intervals from each other, and never 
in close flocks like the Crows. They are easily tamed, and are 
susceptible of attachment; learn readily to articulate words, and 
imitate the cries of different animals. They have a troublesome 
propensity to purloin and conceal small objects not useful to 
themselves, and as jewels and precious metals are peculiarly apt 
to attract their notice, they have been the cause, when kept as 
pets, of serious mischief. Every one is familiar with the story of 
the Thieving Magpie, become so celebrated by the music of 
Rossini, and which is founded on fact. 
The Jays breed in woods, forests, orchards, preferring old and 
very shaded trees, placing their nest in the centre against the 
body, or at the bifurcation of large limbs. The nest is built 
without art, and is formed of twigs and roots, whose capillary 
