nd, filling the air with shrieks, then suddenly dropped to
the round of a chair and calmly dressed his feathers, as if he had
merely been exercising his wings.

Poor little fellow! he was hardly more than a baby, and not very brave.
A big grasshopper which once got into the room afforded him great
excitement and the spectators much amusement. He saw it before his cage
was opened, and as soon as he came out he went after it. The insect
hopped up three feet, and so startled the bird that he jumped almost as
high. When it alighted he picked it up, but seeming not to know what to
do with it, soon dropped it. Again it hopped, and again the jay repeated
his bound; and this performance went on for some minutes, one of the
drollest of sights,--his cautious approach, the spring of the insect,
and his instant copy of the same, as if in emulation. After being picked
up several times the grasshopper was disabled; then when the bird came
near, it lifted its wings, plainly to scare its persecutor; it did awe
him. Meanwhile an orchard oriole had been eagerly looking on, and on one
occasion that the grasshopper was dropped he pounced upon it and carried
it off to a chair, where he proceeded to eat it, though it was so big as
to be almost unmanageable. The jay did not like being deprived of his
plaything. He ran after the thief, and stood on the floor, uttering a
low cry while watching the operation. In the oriole's moving the clumsy
insect fell to the floor, when the jay snatched it; and it was evident
that he had got a new idea about its use, for he carried it under a
chair and demolished it completely,--not even a wing remained.

More disturbing to the jay, strange as it may seem, was a tree. It was
really touching to see a bird afraid of this, but the poor youngster had
been taken from the nest to a house. A Christmas tree was brought into
the bird-room to please the residents there, when, to our amazement, the
jay went into a wild fright, flew madly around near the ceiling,
squawking, and making the other birds think something terrible had
happened. He flew till he was breathless, and was evidently very much
distressed. For three or four days he was equally alarmed the moment he
caught sight of it in the morning and whenever I moved it an inch,
though the other birds liked it and were on it half the time. When he
did get used to it he did not go upon it, but to the standard below,
where he could pick the needle-like leaves and carr