,
one had disappeared, and the other was hopping around the tree in great
excitement, holding in his beak a fluffy white feather about the size of
a jay's breast feather. I did not see the act, and I cannot absolutely
declare it, but I have no doubt that he pulled that feather from the
breast of his foe as he held him down; how many more with it I could not
tell, for I did not think of looking until it was too late.

Again one day, somewhat later, when blue jay and catbird babies were
rather numerous, I saw a blue jay dive into a lilac bush much frequented
by catbirds, young and old together. Instantly there arose a great cry
of distress, as though some one were hurt, and a rustling of leaves,
proclaiming that a chase, if not a fight, was in progress. I hurried
downstairs, and as I appeared the jay flew, with two catbirds after him,
still crying in a way I had never heard before. I expected nothing less
than to find a young catbird injured, but I found nothing. Whether the
blue jay really had touched one, or it was a mere false alarm on the
part of the very excitable catbirds, I could not tell. This is the only
thing I have seen in the jay that might have been an interference with
another bird's rights; and the catbirds made such a row when I came near
their babies that I strongly suspect the only guilt of the jay was
alighting in the lilac they had made their headquarters.

The little boy blue in the apple-tree, already spoken of, did not get
his family off with so little adventure as his pine-tree neighbor. The
youngling of this nest came to the ground and stayed there. The people
of the house returned him to the tree several times, but every time he
fell again. Three or four days he wandered about the neighborhood, the
parents rousing the country with their uproar, and terrorizing the
household cat to such a point of meekness that no sooner did a jay begin
to squawk than he ran to the door and begged to come in. At last, out of
mercy, the family took the little fellow into the house, when they saw
that he was not quite right in some way. One side seemed to be nearly
useless; one foot did not hold on; one wing was weak; and his breathing
seemed to be one-sided. The family, seeing that he could not take care
of himself, decided to adopt him. He took kindly to human care and human
food, and before the end of a week had made himself very much at home.
He knew his food provider, and the moment she entered the room he rose