The Crows and Jays 



(Family CorvidcE) 



SOMETIMES given first rank among birds because 

 of their intelligence, the crows and jays, together 

 with the ravens, magpies, and the European jack- 

 daws, rooks and choughs, constitute a family of birds 

 familiar to everyone. There are about two hundred 

 species found all over the world, except New Zealand, 

 twenty-one of which occur in North America. All of 

 them make interesting but mischievous pets and many 



CROWS IN WINTER AT A WATER-HOLE 

 After the nesting season, crows gather in immense flocks, and frequently ten^ 

 of thousands are to be seen on a single roost. They are ever alert and difficult 

 of approach. 



can be taught to articulate a few words, but in their 

 natural state they are hated by agriculturists and feared 

 by other birds. 



All members of the family have stout, heavy bill.^ 

 with thick tufts of bristles at the base concealing the 

 nostrils, strong legs and toes, adapted for walking and 

 perching, and strong rounded wings. ( )ur American 

 crows and ravens are uniformly black with metallic re- 

 flections, but the jays and magpies are brilliantlv colored, 

 blues, greens, blacks and whites predominating. Crow.? 

 and ravens are further characterized bv short square tails 

 while ihe jays and magpies have long graduated tails. 



All species are omnivorous feeders, taking nuts, fruit, 

 and grain, together with insects, crayfish, fish and the 

 eggs and young of other birds. Whatever is most easily 

 secured always suits the taste of the crows and jays, and 

 for this reason they are often of consideraljle value 

 during insect outbreaks, because the insects are then most 

 easily secured and are fed upon to the exclusion of every- 

 thing else. On the other hand, where eggs or grain are 

 more easily secured than insects, they may do consider- 

 able damage. 



The jays are mostly woodland birds and the damage 

 which they do is largely confined to the eggs and young 

 of smaller birds. Thev are important factors in the natu- 



GIO 



ral dispersal of nut, oak and fruit trees and, like the 

 crows, are undoubtedly responsible for the wide distri- 

 bution and constant recurrence of poison ivy. The blue 

 jay is the commonest species throughout eastern North 

 x^merica, the Canada jay or " camp robber " throughout 

 the North Country, the Steller's jay throughout the West 

 and the California jay in the Pacific Coast region. They 

 are noisy birds, travelling in small companies except dur- 

 ing the nesting season and delighting in mobbing a waiting 

 hawk or a sleepy owl. At times they are good mimics 

 and frequently bring consternation into the ranks of 

 smaller birds by suddenly bursting in on them with the 

 call of a dangerous hawk. Jays nest early in the spring. 



USELESS? NO. WORTH SAVING? 



Ttie common crow of the United States is a mischievous bird, but wary enough 

 to save his life even in thickly settled parts. He does considerable damage and 

 much good and. on the whole, is not deserving of extermination. 



building rather bulky nests of sticks lined with rootlets 

 and laying grayish or greenish spotted eggs. 



Crows are nuich more destructive than the jays be- 

 cause they combine with the thieving, egg-destroying 

 habits of the jays, greater size and bolder habits. Thus 

 they often come into the ])Oultry-yard like hawks after 

 young chickens and regularly feed about corn and 

 grain fields. The damage that they do in the grain fields, 

 however, is largely jiaid for l)y the numbers of harmful 

 insects which they destroy. .Many times it has been 

 shown when they have been thought to be pulling the 

 young corn, that they have been merely after the wire 

 worms working about the roots. In the meadows they 

 destroy large numbers of white grubs and grasshoppers, 

 and fields near woods frecjuented by them have been 

 cleared of army worms, while adjacent fields have been 



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