s causing many deaths.
They often fly away, but they always come back again. All through the
winter they go under cover with the other ducks, but when spring comes
they are not to be found at night; nevertheless they are sure to be
ready for breakfast next morning."

I confess I always had a faint hope that my ducks might stay with me, or
at any rate return from time to time, but their wild nature prevailed,
and they finally left; only Luther reappeared alone one day and took his
last "diet" from my hand; but there was a look in his pretty blue eye
which said plainly, "You will never see me again," and he had his final
caress and departed "to fresh woods and pastures new."

[Illustration: _TINY, SIR FRANCIS DRAKE AND LUTHER_]

[Illustration]

THE JAY.

My Jay was taken from the parent nest, built on the stem of an
ivy-covered tree which had been blown down in the winter. A young jay is
a curious-looking creature: the exquisite blue wing feathers begin to
show before the others are more than quills; the eyes are large and
bright blue, and when the great beak opens it shows a large throat of
deepest carmine, so that it possesses the beauty of colour from its
earliest days, and when full grown and in fine plumage it is one of the
handsomest of our birds. In its babyhood my jay was much like other
young things of his kind, always clamouring for food, and seeming to
care for little else, but as he grew up he attached himself to me with a
wonderful strength of affection which entirely reversed this order of
things, for whenever I came into the room he was restless and unhappy
until I came near enough for him to feed me, he would look carefully
into his food-trough, and at last select what he thought the most
tempting morsel, and then put it through the bars of his cage into my
mouth. He would sometimes feed other people, but as a rule he disliked
strangers, and I have known him even take water in his beak and squirt
it at those who displeased him. On the whole, a jay is not a very
desirable pet; he is restless in a cage, and too large to be quite
convenient when loose in a room; again, his great timidity is a
drawback--the least noise, the sight of a cat or dog, puts him in a
nervous fright, and he flutters about with anxious notes of alarm. He
is seen to best advantage hopping about on a lawn, where he may be
attracted by acorns being strewn in winter and spring. It is a pity that
his marauding habits in game p