. Nestlings of forest and marsh, by Irene Grosvenor Wheelock; . torrent of blue-jay profanityrushed from his throat. The words mightbe unintelligible, but there was no mistakingthe sentiment. In direct contrast to this hesometimes sat as close to me as he could getand whispered in a confidential undertone,musical as a silver bell. It was the same183 NESTLINGS OF FOREST AND MARSH sweet, low coaxing with which I have heardhim woo his mate at four oclock in themorning, and afterwards soothe his beloved nestlings. Fora blue jay canbe gentle, andno bird of myacquaintance issuch a devotedfather. Rob


. Nestlings of forest and marsh, by Irene Grosvenor Wheelock; . torrent of blue-jay profanityrushed from his throat. The words mightbe unintelligible, but there was no mistakingthe sentiment. In direct contrast to this hesometimes sat as close to me as he could getand whispered in a confidential undertone,musical as a silver bell. It was the same183 NESTLINGS OF FOREST AND MARSH sweet, low coaxing with which I have heardhim woo his mate at four oclock in themorning, and afterwards soothe his beloved nestlings. Fora blue jay canbe gentle, andno bird of myacquaintance issuch a devotedfather. Robinswill sometimesabandon theiryoung if the lat-maimed, and I havethem to refuse to feed alestling after he had leftthe home tree. But blue jays defend andcare for their own kind. There is an esprit decorps in the entire family which leads them tostand by each other, — a jolly good fellow-ship, as it were. Two robins may quarrel,two orioles often do, but blue jays a young jay is taken from one nest andplaced in another, he receives the same care1S4. the jay DR. JEKYLL from his foster parents that their own youngdo. And yet these same foster parents willbring the nestlings of other birds to him forfood. This banding together of the jays on alloccasions against a common foe helps tomake them a terror to all woodland doubt whether even a hungry hawk wouldattempt to rob them, and hence the jaysincrease and the song birds decrease. Early one morning I witnessed an amusingdemonstration of the jays peculiar devotionto his mate. Part of the lawn had beennewly raked over with fresh earth, and herethe two jays came for their breakfast, aswell as to get food for their young. Theirnest was across the street in the next block,about three hundred feet away. The malewas either less hungry or more fortunate inhunting, for he finished some minutes beforethe female. Then, having gathered fourlarge angle-worms in his beak, he flew to alow perch to wait for her. Seeing that sh


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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1902