Tue “JAYHAWK” IS A MYTH. It has
no historical use. It is neither beast, fish nor
fowl. The myth had its rise in the characters
of two birds that frequent the Missouri Val-
ley, namely the blue jay, a noisy, quarrelsome,
robber that takes delight in pouncing upon
smaller birds and robbing their nests of eggs
and young birds, and the sparrow hawk, a
genteel killer of birds, rats, mice and rabbits,
and when necessary a courageous and cau-
tious fighter. Just when, where and by whom
the names of the two birds were joined in

“Jayhawk” and applied to human beings, no
one knows. However it is known that the
term “Jayhawk” originated i in the home ter-
ritory of these birds. somewhere between
Texas and Nebraska. -It is known that it was
applied to an overland company of gold-
seekers on their way through Nebraska to
California. It was applied to Jennison’s band
of free-booters, to Montgomery’s rangers, to
Missouri guerrilla bands of border ruffians,
and finally in a general way to the free-soilers
of Kansas.

In the early days of uncertainty of gov-
ernment, life and property, whenever bands
were organized requiring purpose, courage,
boldness and reckless daring, they were al-
ways candidates for the name either through
choice or through the derision and hatred of
enemies. It is significant also that “jay-
hawking” became a general term to express
marauding or plundering.