Page:Bird-lore Vol 08.djvu/225

 The Blue Jay By WILLIAM DUTCHER President of the National Association of Audubon Societies /Rational Association of ftuoubon Societies EDUCATIONAL LEAFLET NO. 22 "And startle from his ashen spray, Across the glen, the screaming Jay." It certainly is a tyro in bird study who does not know this noisy braggart fellow with his inquisitive ways. Such characteristics usually repel, but in the case of the Blue Jay they rather attract, and no one can help admiring this conspicuous member of the Corvine family. He has all the cunning of his somber-hued cousins the Crows, but not their sedateness ; he is life and activity personified. Another member of this family, the Magpie, attracted the notice of both Aristotle and Pliny, the former of whom says, "the Pica oftentimes changes its notes, for almost every day it utters different cries. When acorns grow scarce, it gathers them and keeps them hidden in store." The first statement refers undoubtedly to the power that the Magpies and Jays have of imitat- ing the notes of other birds. The habit of storing food is also practiced by the American members of the family. Pliny says, "not only do they learn, but they delight to talk, and, medi- tating carefully and thoughtfully within themselves, hide not their earnest- ness. They are known to have died when overcome by difficulty in a word, and, should they not hear the same things constantly, to have failed in their memory, and while recalling them to be cheered up in wondrous wise, if meanwhile they have heard that word. Nor is their beauty of an ordinary sort, though not considerable to the eye; for them it is enough honour to have a kind of human speech. However people deny that others are able to learn, save those belonging to the group which lives on acorns — and of these again those with the greatest ease which have five toes upon each of their feet; nor even they except during the first two years of life." These two curious and interesting bits of ancient natural history show conclusively that the present interest in nature is by no means new. Audubon, although he admired the beauty of the Blue Jay, did not give him a good reputation as the following pen picture shows: "Reader, look at the plate on which are represented three individuals of this beautiful species, — rogues though they be, and thieves, as I would call them, were it fit for me to pass judgment on their actions. See how each is enjoying the fruits of his knavery, sucking the egg which he has pilfered from the nest of some innocent Dove or harmless Partridge. Who could imagine that a form so (181)