414 MIClIKiAN BIRD LIKE. 



The food of the Jays includes almost everything eatable, but they show 

 special fondness for acorns, beech nuts, small fruits and insects. They 

 rob the nests of smaller birds frequently, yet so far as our personal observa- 

 tion goes such robberies are restricted to particular birds and are by no 

 means general. With at least half a dozen Blue Jays' nests under observa- 

 tion each year we have known an entire season to pass without the detection 

 of a single act of violence on the part of the Jays. On the other hand, 

 we have occasionally known several nests of Robins and Chipping Sparrows 

 to be destroyed within a week. 



The Blue Jay is a rather general feeder on insects and probably does a 

 large amount of good in this way, especially since it does not disdain hairy 

 caterpillars but appears to eat them with some pleasure. Probably the great- 

 est good done is in eating caterpillars and grasshoppers, but it may be useful 

 also in consuming the bark-boring and wood-boring beetles and other large 

 insects infesting woodlands. It gets a large part of its food from the ground 

 and also buries or hides there any surplus that it may have. This is 

 particularly true of small fruits, acorns, beechnuts and grain, although it 

 also stores these things away in knot-holes, crevices in trees, and chinks 

 behind loose sheets of bark. 



Undoubtedly the Blue Jay is an important factor in reforesting burnt or 

 cut-over lands, since it is continually planting acorns, nuts and seeds of 

 various kinds. Of course it also distributes the seeds of many of the fruits 

 which it eats, as these are disgorged or pass through the intestines and are 

 distributed under favorable conditions for growth. Mr. Amos Butler, 

 of Indiana, believes that the Blue Jay distributes seeds of poison ivy ex- 

 tensively in this way, but our own investigations indicate that it eats few 

 if any poison ivy berries, and the distribution of these seeds is largely 

 accomplished by other birds. Professor F. E. L. Beal, of the U. S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, found no seeds of poison Rhus in the 292 Blue Jay 

 stomachs which he examined. He says "Jays do not eat the seeds of the 

 poison ivy (Rhus radicans) or poison sumac (Rhus vernix). It is worthy 

 of notice that the sumac seeds eaten are those of the harmless staghorn 

 (Rhus hirta) and smooth sumac (Rhus glabra) " (Yearbook U. S. Dept. 

 Agr., 1896, 205). 



Under some circumstances the Blue Jay becomes very annoying in its 

 injury to cultivated fruits. It frequently attacks ripening apples and pears, 

 pecking holes in the sides of the largest and ripest fruits and injuring a much 

 greater number than it can possibly use. Moreover, its example is quickly 

 followed by other birds, who begin by enlarging the openings made by the 

 Jay, but probably attack sound fruits after a taste has been obtained. 

 When work on a tree of early apples has been once started the Jays, Red- 

 headed Woodpeckers, Robins and Orioles sometimes destroy almost every 

 apple. 



The Blue Jay has an immense variety of call-notes, many of which are 

 decidedly musical, especially when heard at a little distance. Its ordinary 

 harsh scream of "jay, jay" has given it its common name, but it has in 

 addition a common yodling note which Seton Thompson writes "sir-roo-tle, 

 sir-roo-tle, sir-roo-tle," which he says is uttered in a subdued undertone; the 

 same syllables, however, express very well one of its common calls in autumn 

 Avhich may be heard at a distance of a quarter of a mile or even more. It 

 also imitates the calls of the Red-tailed and Red-shouldered Hawks with 

 such precision and accuracy as to mislead many birds and even deceive 

 the practiced human ear. During quiet days in winter, and especially 



