Evening star., 1948-09-10
This and That
Bu Charles +. Trace,DeH


reader wants an identification Of the fol-
lowing bird:
"He is large, dull purplish blue except for
rump and tail feathers, which are beautifully
dotted or speckled bright blue and white.
HE has loud, harsh screech, followed by .
trill or warble which resembles q yodel.
II thought he was blue jay but my bird
book pictures the jay with q white throat,
breast, belly and TANKS.
I'm this bird they are dark, dull blue.
''Is he of the Jay family?"
Yes, he is
He Is blue jay!
Sometimes books mix one up terribly.
Now and then illustrations are deceptive.
We recall the photograph Of = catbird that
scarcely resembled that bird.
Even famous painters of bird portraits oc-
casionally slip up badly. Probably they
wouldn't know themselves just why they failed,
in that single instance.
The great Audubons picture of the wood
thrush will strike many eyes today as faulty.
Just whether he had q bad day when he
painted that one, or whether the wood thrush
today does not look a. 1t did many years ago,
will remain . mystery.
In any event, there Is q very good eolored
illustration OF the blue jay in Birds OF
America"
There is shown clearly the purplish back, and
the lighter blue on the wings, with white on
the wings and on outer edges of tail, the white
abdomen ranging to pale gray in places, or even
to blush gray.
You see, not all jays are precisely alike in
every single feature, right down to their toes.
There are always variations in living crea-
lures.
But the amount of coloring named, combined
with loud, harsh screech," adds up to Jay
Birds Of blue hue are remarkably few in this
vicinity.
There is the jay, the bluebird and the indigo
bunting. The latter is blue, but more or less
blue all over, in its odd way. The color some
what resembles the wrapping around absorbent
cotton. The head of the indigo bunting Is
darker, and there is some black on the wings
There is bit of blue on the nuthatch, which
screams with nasal quality as it goes down
tree trunks head first.
But 1t Is by no means a large bird, and its
blue is rather black but with definite blush
gloss.
There are some experts who claim that all
blues, in birds properly should be called black.
starlings have some blue in them, of an ir-
rideScent appearance and the young ones have
fine white spots on them.
. The jay remains a favorite of many bird
watchers
A prothonotary warbler may never be seen
in the home yard even If 1t has broken into
congressional nedTllgS. tlnlS creature, some
times called golden warbler, has yellow fore
and under parts with upper parts of yellow
olive green.)
A blue jay. however Is sure to come to every
yard sometime in the year. He Is liked by all
persons who have not fallen for the smear
campaign against him.
A jay has humor, spunk. vigor and beauty
He does good in the world, as well as some ILL.,
He hides food most of 1t found by smaller birds.
He warns them of approaching enemies. He Is
on the 60 all day long, terror to i'll doers, q
fash in the sky, scream In the ears He can
make sweet music ut times, but he prefers to
yel He sails the sky like q buccaneer: he leans
against the wind and yells, throws his head back
and his crest up to the heavens. He is all
things to all men. That Is why you will hear
him called beauty and demon, fine fellow
and q rogue, q favorite and q pest. Perhaps
no creature called 80 variously can be any
thing but good, in the large. For OF all birds
as well as of men, it is true that the doer viii
always have some enemies and suffer from
smears which, because they are untrue. cannot
b proved WronK.