the thigh and so much harmed itself that I thought it humane to put
an end to its misery. When I took out my knife to cut their hempen
bonds, the heads of the family seemed to divine my friendly intent.
Suddenly ceasing their cries and threats. they perched quietly within
reach of my hand, and watched me in my work of manumission.
This, owing to the fluttering terror of the prisoners, was an affair of
some delicacy; but ere long I was rewarded by seeing one of them
fly away to a neighboring tree, while the cripple, making a
parachute of his wings, came lightly to the ground, and hopped off
as well as he could with one leg, obsequiously waited on by his
elders. A week later I had the satisfaction of meeting him in the
pine-walk, in good spirits, and already so far recovered as to be
able to balance himself with the lame foot. I have no doubt that in
his old age he accounted for his lameness by some handsome story
of a wound received at the famous Battle of the Pines, when our
tribe, overcome by numbers, was driven from its ancient camping-
ground. Of late years the jays have visited us only at intervals; and
in winter their bright plumage, set off by the snow, and their
cheerful cry, are especially welcome. They would have furnished
Aesop with a fable, for the feathered crest in which they seem to
take so much satisfaction is often their fatal snare. Country boys
make a hole with their finger in the snow-crust just large enough to
admit the jay's head, and, hollowing it out somewhat beneath, bait it
with a few kernels of corn. The crest slips easily into the trap, but
refuses to be pulled out again, and he who came to feast remains a
prey.

Twice have the crow-blackbirds attempted a settlement in my
pines, and twice have the robins, who claim a right of preemption,
so successfully played the part of border-ruffians as to drive them