12 BLUE JAY.
waged against them, but still the birds continued to be killed ; first the
smaller, then the larger, until at length the Key west Pigeons; when it
was discovered that a J a y which had been raised in the aviary was the
depredator. He was taken out, and placed in a cage, with a quantity of
corn, flour and several small birds which he had just killed. The birds
he soon devoured, but the flour he would not condescend to eat, and refusing
every other kind of food soon died. In the north, it is particularly
fond of ripe chestnuts, and in visiting the trees is sure to select the
choicest. When these fail, it attacks the beech nuts, acorns, pears, apples,
and green corn.
While at Louisville, in Kentucky, in the winter of 1830, I purchased
twenty-five of these birds, at the rate of 6 | cents each, which I shipped
to New Orleans, and afterwards to Liverpool, with the view of turning
them out in the English woods. They were caught in common traps,
baited with maize, and were brought to me one after another as soon as
secured. In placing them in the large cage which I had ordered for the
purpose of sending them abroad, I was surprised to see how cowardly
each newly caught bird was when introduced to his brethren, who, on being
in the cage a day or two, were as gay and frolicksome as if at liberty
in the woods. The new comer, on the contrary, would run into a corner,
place his head almost in a perpendicular position, and remain silent and
sulky, with an appearance of stupidity quite foreign to his nature. He
would suffer all the rest to walk over him and trample him down, without
ever changing his position. If corn or fruit was presented to him, or even
placed close to his bill, he would not so much as look at it. If touched
with the hand, he would cower, lie down on his side, and remain motionless.
The next day, however, things were altered : he was again a Jay,
taking up corn, placing it between his feet, hammering it with his bill,
splitting the grain, picking out the kernel, and dropping the divided
husks. When the cage was filled, it was amusing to listen to their hammering
; all mounted on their perch side by side, each pecking at a grain
of maize, like so many blacksmiths paid by the piece. They drank
a great deal, eat broken paean nuts, grapes, dried fruits of all sorts,
and especially fresh beef, of which they were extremely fond, roosted
very peaceably close together, and were very pleasing pets. Now and
then one would utter a cry of alarm, when instantly all would leap and
fly about as if greatly concerned, making as much ado as if their most inveterate
enemy had been in the midst of them. They bore the passage
BLUE JAY. 1 3
to Europe pretty well, and most of them reached Liverpool in good
health ; but a few days after their arrival, a disease occasioned by insects
adhering to every part of their body, made such progress that some
died every day. Many remedies were tried in vain, and only one individual
reached London. The insects had so multiplied on it, that I immersed
it in an infusion of tobacco, which, however, killed it in a few hours.
On advancing north, I observed that as soon as the Canada Jay made
its appearance, the Blue Jay became more and more rare; not an individual
did any of our party observe in Newfoundland or Labrador, during
our stay there. On landing a few miles from Pictou, on the 22d of August
1833, after an absence of several months from the United States, the
voice of a Blue Jay sounded melodious to me, and the sight of a Humming
Bird quite filled my heart with delight.
These Jays are plentiful in all parts of the United States. In Louisiana,
they are so abundant as to prove a nuisance to the farmers, picking
the newly planted corn, the pease, and the sweet potatoes, attacking
every fruit tree, and even destroying the eggs of pigeons and domestic
fowls. The planters are in the habit of occasionally soaking some corn
in a solution of arsenic, and scattering the seeds over the ground, in consequence
of which many Jays are found dead about the fields and gardens.
The Blue Jay is extremely expert in discovering a fox, a racoon, or
any other quadruped hostile to birds, and will follow it, emitting a loud
noise, as if desirous of bringing every J a y or Crow to its assistance. It
acts in the same manner towards owls, and even on some occasions towards
hawks.
This species breeds in all parts of the United States, from Louisiana
to Maine, and from the Upper Missouri to the coast of the Atlantic. In
South Carolina it seems to prefer for this purpose the live oak trees. In
the lower parts of the Floridas it gives place in a great measure to the
Florida J a y ; nor did I meet with a single individual in the Keys of that
peninsula. In Louisiana, it breeds near the planter's house, in the upper
parts of the trees growing in the avenues, or even in the yards, and
generally at a greater height than in the Middle States, where it is comparatively
shy. It sometimes takes possession of the old or abandoned
nest of a Crow or Cuckoo. In the Southern States, from Louisiana to
Maryland, it breeds twice every year; but to the eastward of the latter
State seldom more than once. Although it occurs in all places from the