624 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



About a year ago the vines were almost entirely torn away 

 from the house, and in consequence the English sparrow, having 

 no place of refuge from the blue jays, has deserted this lawn. The 

 blue jays now seem to take greater pleasure in routing a venture- 

 some sparrow by means of their own natural call, and have re- 

 course to the imitation of the hawk only as a last resort. 



The catbird and robin seem to have learned from the blue jay 

 the efficacy of a vigorous, angry call, and now fight successfully 

 their own battles. Last summer a bluebird nested and sang 

 freely in the trees. Even the wrens ventured to build on a beam 

 in the carriage shed, although they seemed ver} 7 shy and were 

 rarely heard to sing. 



In Ornithological Notes from the West, by J. A. Allen (Ameri- 

 can Naturalist, vol. vi, p. 18), I find the following references to the 

 blue jays which were observed by him at Leavenworth, Kansas : 

 "The blue jay (Cyanura cristatus) was equally at home and as 

 vivacious and even more gayly colored than at the north. While 

 he seemed to have forgotten none of the droll notes and fantastic 

 ways one always expects from him, he has here added to his man- 

 ners the familiarity that usually characterizes him in the more 

 newly settled parts of the country, and anon surprised us with 

 some new expression of his feelings or sentiments some unex- 

 pected eccentricity in his varied notes, perhaps developed by his 

 southern surroundings." 



Robert Ridgway, in Volume VIII of The American Natu- 

 ralist, refers to the above instance and others cited by Mr. Allen. 

 " Mr. Allen," he writes, " has called attention to the variation in 

 the notes of different birds at remote localities ; and in this I am 

 able to corroborate him, though I think that cases of such varia- 

 tion are very rare, and do not occur in more than perhaps five per 

 cent of the species. I have only detected it in two or three species 

 after the most careful observation, and in very many cases noticed 

 that there was not in the minutest particular any difference be- 

 tween individuals of one species on opposite sides of the conti- 

 nent. Such is undoubtedly the case in a very great majority of 

 the species, any seeming variation that may be observed being 

 more probably the peculiarity of an individual rather than the 

 manifestation of any regional impress." 



The conduct of the blue jays instanced above may be used in 

 confirmation of the three quotations made in this article, for the 

 blue jay has certainly in this instance " developed powers of re- 

 sistance at first unsuspected," which certainly aid it in its war- 

 fare with the English sparrow. Moreover, it would confirm Mr. 

 Allen's observation in regard to the variability of the jay's note 

 his " unexpected eccentricity " in Kansas if indeed Mr. Allen's 

 observations needed other confirmation than that afforded by 



