a
chip off his shoulder," and he goes about with an appearance of
important business on hand very droll to see.

The bearing of the mother of the pine-tree brood was somewhat different
from that of her mate, and by their manners only could the pair be
distinguished. Whatever may be Nature's reason for dressing the sexes
unlike each other in the feathered world,--which I will leave for the
wise heads to settle,--it is certainly an immense advantage to the
looker-on in birddom. When a pair are facsimiles of each other, as are
the jays, it requires the closest observation to tell them apart;
indeed, unless there is some defect in plumage, which is not uncommon,
it is necessary to penetrate their personal characteristics, to become
familiar with their idiosyncrasies of habit and manner. In the pine-tree
family, the mother had neither the presence of mind nor the bluster of
the partner of her joys. When I came too near the nest tree, she greeted
me with a plaintive cry, a sort of "craw! craw!" at the same time
"jouncing" herself violently, thus protesting against my intrusion;
while he saluted me with squawks that made the welkin ring. Neither of
them paid any attention to me, so long as I remained upon a stationary
bench not far from their tree; they were used to seeing people in that
place, and did not mind them. It was the unexpected that they resented.
Having established our habits, birds in general insist that we shall
govern ourselves by them, and not depart from our accustomed orbit.

On near acquaintance, I found the jay possessed of a vocabulary more
copious than that of any other bird I know, though the flicker does not
lack variety of expression. When some aspiring scientist is ready to
study the language of birds, I advise him to experiment with the blue
jay. He is exceedingly voluble, always ready to talk, and not in the
least backward in exhibiting his accomplishments. The low-toned,
plaintive sounding conversation of the jays with each other, not only
beside the nest, but when flying together or apart, or in brief
interviews in the lilac bush, pleased me especially, because it was
exactly the same prattle that a pet blue jay was accustomed to address
to me; and it confirmed what I had always believed from his manner, that
it was his most loving and intimate expression, the tone in which he
addresses his best beloved.

Beside the well-known squawk, which Thoreau aptly calls "the brazen
trump of the impatien