46 BIRDS OF P. E. ISLAND. 
     
    
   
   
    
     in the most expert manner, fishes smelts in the 
     
     brook, and delights in a nutting excursion in the 
     
     woods, while he never misses the opportunity of 
     
     a good meal on grasshoppers, locusts and June 
     
     bugs, on the sunny slopes of upland pastures. 
     
     Our Crows gather in great rookeries in the 
     
     autumn. Until recently a grove in Charlottetown 
     
     Park was the trysting place for central Queen’s 
     
     County. I have seen three thousand Crows going 
     
     at sundown, on a calm autumn evening, in one 
     
     long, black, silent stream of quivering pinions to 
     
    
   
   
    
     this favorite resting place. 
     
    
   
   
    
     BLUE lAY. 
     
    
   
   
    
     ( C ya Ilstz'tz‘a crz'stata ) 
     
    
   
   
    
     'l‘he bright—plumed Jay is one of our most 
     
     familiar birds. In winter he comes, like a chief- 
     
     tain from the wilds, with gay crest and dainty 
     
     steps, picking up refuse at our doors. Stray nuts 
     
     in the forest afford him food now, too. In 
     
     summer he feeds more luxuriously, robbing the 
     
     nests of feebler birds and devouring their helpless 
     
    
   
   
    
     young. It is part of his foraying tactics to imi