1888.] UTILITY OF BIRDS IN AGRICULTURE. 85 



The blue jays persecute the hawk with unrelenting fury, 

 whenever they find him in anything approaching to a helpless 

 cundition; for this they should receive a mark upon the good side, 

 yet they are just as furious towards the owls, who do little but 

 good in their destruction of the moles and field mice, that often 

 do such immense damage to the ripening crops, that for this they 

 should receive a corresponding demerit. The blue jay, when 

 pressed for food, will seek and devour almost anything that he 

 can get hold of. In this he is followed by his northern friend the 

 Canada jay, who makes himself as familiar in Northern Canada 

 as does our species here. When the fit is upon him he visits the 

 nests of every bird in his vicinity. It is an old trick of his to eat 

 their eggs, and should the nest contain young birds it makes no 

 difference to him. Should this prove insufficient he turns hunter 

 himself, and then eats the entrails, and possibly the bodies also, 

 of those birds whom he has captured. It is safe to say that hun- 

 dreds of beneficial birds are thus destroyed each year. On the 

 other hand, Wilson mentions the fact that a letter from his friend, 

 Mr. Bartram, contains the following remarkable passage concern- 

 ing this bird. He says : '• Their chief employment during the 

 autumnal season is foraging to supply their winter stores. In per- 

 forming this necessary duty, they drop abundance of seed in their 

 flight over fields, hedges, and by fences, where they alight to 

 deposit them in post-holes, etc. It is remarkable," he continues 

 to say, "what numbers of young trees rise up in fields and pastures 

 after a wet winter and spring; these birds alone are capable, in a 

 few years' time, to replant all the cleared land." 



Undoubtedly this statement is true to a limited degree, and 

 anyone who has watched the movements of this bird at all is well 

 aware of his propensity for dropping acorns and perhaps other 

 nuts from the trees upon which they grow. But a single point 

 further about which I feel quite positive, though yet I may be 

 mistaken, is the fact that so far as my observation goes the blue 

 jay does not molest grain fields, to any great extent, though this is 

 a matter requiring much further attention and record. 



BALTIMORE ORIOLE. 



Were it not that the destructiveness of the Baltimore oriole, 

 among the pea-vines in early summer, were too well known and 

 feared, this bird might be classed as among our most useful 



