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Dashing Cape Robbers

One of the Cape’s most handsome birds is a robber. With a flash of blue through the air and a swift swoop upon his “prey,” this fellow gets what he is after.

He is our blue jay,somewhat larger than the robin, raucous of voice, daring and dashing in manner. If there is anything untoward in the vicinity, he is quick to observe it and to raise a noisy warning. A cat prowling about, a young bird fallen to the ground, a person in the nearness of a nest these the blue jay announces to all about him.

When he wants food, his keen eyes sweep the scene for it. He will hang about a camp site or a home and swipe any removable bits of food he can take away. We have seen him watch another bird alight on a branch with food in its mouth and like a blue streak dart there and seize the food from the other bird and away with it before the unsuspecting victim of the robbery was aware of what was happening.

Yet the blue jay is a gay, venturesome, loveable fellow. He is as full of pep as of noise, his warning cries are often of use to humans, his strikingly handsome plumage makes him a true picture of unvarying beauty. Actually, the blue jay is a crow. Perhaps we discover this best as we hear his rough voice shouting to the rest of his clan about some incident or condition that has roused his attention.

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