182 Bird -Lore graceful, arrayed by Nature in a garb so resplendent, should harbour so much mischief; — that selfishness, duplicity and malice should form the moral accompaniments of so much physical perfection ! Yet so it is, and how like beings of a much higher order, are these gay deceivers. Aye, I could write you a whole chapter on this subject, were not my task of a different nature." Alexander Wilson esteemed the Blue Jay a frivolous fellow: "This elegant bird is distinguished as a kind of beau among the feathered tenants of our woods, by the brilliancy of his dress; and, like most other coxcombs, makes himself still more conspicuous by his loquacity, and the oddness of his tones and gestures. In the charming season of spring, when every thicket pours forth harmony, the part performed by the Jay always catches the ear. He appears to be, among his fellow-musicians, what the trumpeter is in a band, some of his notes having no distant resemblance to the tones of that instrument. These he has the faculty of changing through a great variety of modulations, according to the particular humor he happens to be in. When disposed for ridicule, there is scarce a bird whose peculiarities of song he cannot tune his notes to. When engaged in the blandishments of love they resemble the soft chatterings of a Duck; and, while he nestles among the thick branches of the cedar, are scarce heard at a few paces dis- tance; but no sooner does he discover your approach than he sets up a sudden and vehement outcry, flying off, and screaming with all his might, as if he called the whole feathered tribes of the neighborhood to vitness some outrageous usage he had received. When he hops undisturbed mong the high branches of the oak and hickory, they become soft and m sical; and his call of the female, a stranger would readily mistake for the repeated creakings of an ungreased wheelbarrow. All these he accompanies with various nods, jerks and other gesticulations, for which the whole tr z of Jays is so remarkable, that, with some other peculiarities, they might '^ave very well justified the great Swedish naturalist* in forming them in« > a separate genus by themselves." Of the more modern writers on the life -history of the Blue Jay, the late Major Bendire says: "Few of our native birds compare in beauty of plumage and general bearing with the Blue Jay, and, while one cannot help admiring him on account of amusing and interesting traits, still even his best friends cannot say much in his favor, and, though I have never caught one actually in mischief, so many close observers have done so, that one cannot very well, even if so inclined, disprove the principal charge brought against this handsome freebooter." It is an unfortunate fact that if a bad name is attached to a person or a bird it is hard work to live it down, even though the bearer has been con- demned on hearsay evidence. The story of guilt may have been started on
- Carl von Li nne = Linnaeus, born May Z4, 1707, at Rashult. Sweden.
