How surely the birds know their enemies! See how the wrens and robins and bluebirds pursueand scold the cat, while they take little or no notice of the dog! Even the swallow will fight the cat,and, relying too confidently upon its powers of flight, sometimes swoops down so near to its enemythat it is caught by a sudden stroke of the cat's paw. The only case I know of in which our smallbirds fail to recognize their enemy is furnished by the shrike; apparently the little birds do not knowthat this modest-colored bird is an assassin. At least, I have never seen them scold or molest him, orutter any outcries at his presence, as they usually do at birds of prey. Probably it is because the shrikeis a rare visitant, and is not found in this part of the country during the nesting season of oursongsters.But the birds have nearly all found out the trick the jay, and when he comes sneaking through thetrees in May and June in quest of eggs, he is quickly exposed and roundly abused. It is amusing tosee the robins hustle him out of the tree which holds their nest. They cry "Thief, thief!" to the top oftheir voices as they charge upon him, and the jay retorts in a voice scarcely less complimentary as hemakes off.The jays have their enemies also, and need to keep an eye on their own eggs. It would beinteresting to know if jays ever rob jays, or crows plunder crows; or is there honor among thieveseven in the feathered tribes? I suspect the jay is often punished by birds which are otherwiseinnocent of nest-robbing. One season I found a jay's nest in a small cedar on the side of a woodedridge. It held five eggs, every one of which had been punctured.