by impudence and union, a mob
being his weapon of offense and defense. Beside him no small bird lived
in the vicinity. No vireo hung there her dainty cup, while her mate
preached his interminable sermons from the trees about; no phoebe
shouted his woes to an unsympathizing world; no sweet-voiced goldfinch
poured out his joyous soul; not a song-sparrow tuned his little lay
within our borders. Unseen of men, but no doubt sharply defined to
clearer senses than ours, was a line barring them out.

Who was responsible for this state of things? Could it be the one pair
of jays in the pine, or the colony of blackbirds the other side of the
house? Should we characterize it as a blue jay neighborhood or a
blackbird neighborhood? The place was well policed, certainly; robins
and blue jays united in that work, though their relations with each
other bore the character of an armed neutrality, always ready for a few
hot words and a little bluster, but never really coming to blows. We
never had the pleasure of seeing a stranger among us. We might hear him
approaching, nearer and nearer, till, just as the eager listener fancied
he might alight in sight, there would burst upon the air the screech of
a jay or the war-cry of a robin, accompanied by the precipitate flight
of the whole clan, and away would go the stranger in a most sensational
manner, followed by outcries and clamor enough to drive off an army of
feathered brigands. This neighborhood, if the accounts of his character
are to be credited, should be the congenial home of the
kingbird,--tyrant flycatcher he is named; but as a matter of fact, not
only were the smaller flycatchers conspicuous by their absence, but the
king himself was never seen, and the flying tribes of the insect world,
so far as dull-eyed mortals could see, grew and flourished.

Close scrutiny of every movement of wings, however, revealed one thing,
namely, that any small bird who appeared within our precincts was
instantly, without hesitation, and equally without unusual noise or
special publicity, driven out by the English sparrow; and I became
convinced that he, and he alone, was responsible for the presence of
none but large birds, who could defy him.

One of the prettiest sights about the pine-tree homestead was the way
the jay went up to it. He never imitated the easy style of his mate, who
simply flew to a branch below the three that held her treasure, and
hopped up the last step. Not he; not so would