and the jay retorts in a voice scarcely less complimentary as he
makes off.

The jays have their enemies also, and need to keep an eye on their own
eggs. It would be interesting to know if jays ever rob jays, or crows
plunder crows; or is there honor among thieves even in the feathered
tribes? I suspect the jay is often punished by birds which are
otherwise innocent of nest-robbing. One season I found a jay's nest in
a small cedar on the side of a wooded ridge. It held five eggs, every
one of which had been punctured. Apparently some bird had driven its
sharp beak through their shells, with the sole intention of destroying
them, for no part of the contents of the eggs had been removed.
It looked like a case of revenge; as if some thrush or warbler,
whose nest had suffered at the hands of the jays, had watched its
opportunity, and had in this way retaliated upon its enemies. An egg
for an egg. The jays were lingering near, very demure and silent, and
probably ready to join a crusade against nest-robbers.

The great bugaboo of the birds is the owl. The owl snatches them from
off their roosts at night, and gobbles up the1r eggs and young in their
nests. He is a veritable ogre to them, and his presence fills them
with consternation and alarm.

One season, to protect my early cherries I placed a large stuffed owl
amid the branches of the tree. Such a racket as there instantly began
about my grounds is not pleasant to think upon! The orioles and robins
fairly "shrieked out their affright." The news instantly spread in
every direction, and apparently every bird in town came to see that
owl in the cherry-tree, and every bird took a cherry, so that I
lost more fruit than if I had left the owl in-doors. With craning