The Children's Book of Birds

by Olive Thorne Miller

No bird is more loving to his little folk than the blue jay, and not one is more frantic when anything happens to them. James Russell Lowell, the poet, loved the birds, and has written delightful things about them. He once found a family of young blue jays who seemed to be in trouble. He had a ladder brought, and went up to the nest to see if he could help them. He found that they had got caught in the nest lining, and could not get away. They were full grown, and the old birds had worked hard from morning till night to keep them fed.

As soon as Mr. Lowell saw what was the matter, he took out his knife to cut the strings that held them. At first when he came near, the old birds were very much frightened. They flew around his head and cried, and were going to fight him. But jays are wise birds, and in a moment they saw that he did not mean to hurt them. So they perched close by him, so near he could put his hand on them. Then they watched him while he cut the little ones loose. All of them could fly, and they did, at once.

One of the nestlings had been so tightly held that one leg was withered and dead, but the next day Mr. Lowell saw him hopping about the garden path, on one leg, while his parents brought him food, and took great care of him.

The blue jay, like most birds, is kind to others. One man found a little flock taking care of an old, blind jay. They fed him, and led him to water to bathe. They warned him of danger, and in every way looked out for his comfort as if he were a nestling.

Besides being a singer, this bird is a mimic. He can imitate the songs of other birds, as well as many other sounds. A lady once had a blue jay who had fallen from the nest. She brought him up, and he was very tame. She told me that he learned to sing like a mockingbird, and did it almost as well. This bird was very fond of her. When she tried to give him his freedom, he wouldn't have it. If she slipped away from him, he would sit up in a tree and scream like a lost child. Then, when she came into his sight, he would fly down to her shoulder and rub his head against her cheek like a kitten, he was so happy to be back with her.

The blue jay is a useful bird. Dr. Brewer says that one pair of jays will feed their young in one season five hundred thousand caterpillars; also that one pair of jays will destroy one million insect eggs in a winter.

Many hard things have been said about this bird,—for one thing, that he eats eggs and young birds. You will notice, however, that many who repeat these stories about him say, "I have not seen the bird do so, but some one else has." Testimony like this is worth nothing. Such things are copied from one book to another because it is much easier to take what is set down in the books than to go out and see for one's self. Often a story which has no truth in it is said over and over till people believe it because they have heard it so often.

Believe me, the blue jay is not half so bad as he is painted, and he has many lovable traits to make up for what he does do.

Mr. Keyser brought up a young blue jay from the nest. He put him for a while into a cage with two young orioles. Like all young birds, all three of the youngsters were hungry, and expected everybody to feed them. So the young jay opened wide his mouth, and waited for something good to drop into it. He was met by the two orioles with their mouths wide open. There they stood, face to face, all asking to be fed. It was a funny sight.