12 THE JAY.

gabble, shout, or whistle, others with a raucous voice,
seem to demand attention: the noise made on these
occasions, may be aptly compared to that of a disiant
meeting of disorderly drunken persons.”

“It is remarkable,” says Bishop Stanley, “how exactly
similar are the habits and propensities of birds of the
same tribe or family, though of different species. ‘Thus
the jays of North America are of various sorts, entirely
differing from our English jays, in parts, or in the
whole of their plumage; and yet, in their manners,
scarcely a difference is observable. We have before
remarked that these and some other birds will just keep
out of the range of gun-shot, as if they had learned,
either from experience, or by some unknown mode of
communication, from their older companions, that pro-

vided they never allowed a shooter to come within a
' given distance, they were quite safe.

But the American jays we are speaking of, have
no such knowledge founded upon experience, as is fully
proved by the account of an [English officer, who was
travelling in a very wild unfrequented part of North
America, where no gunners had gone before him, and
no jay could therefore have ever learned the proper
distance to keep, in order to ensure its safety. Yet,
there they were, exactly like our common English jays,
shy and cautious, as if they had been hunted by sports-
men every day of their lives, keeping at a certain
distance, with the occasional clatter and chattering so
well known to those who have patiently and persever-
ingly pursued from copse to copse, or tree to tree, a
disturbed party of these cunning birds.”