44 BULLETIN 191, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



and interesting traits, still even his best friends can not say mucii in his favor, 

 and though I have never caught one actually in mischief, so many close observers 

 have done so that one can not very well, even if so inclined, disprove the prin- 

 cipal charge brought against this handsome freebooter. He is accused of destroying 

 many of the eggs and young of our smaller birds, and this is so universally 

 admitted that there can be no doubt of its truth. * * * 



Air. Manly Hardy, of Brewer, Maine, fully corroborates these statements, 

 writing me as follows : "It is a great robber of birds' nests, taking both eggs and 

 yoimg. I also feel quite sure that in some cases it kills adult birds. * * * There 

 is utile doubt that they destroy many nests of eggs and young; all of the small 

 birds say so." 



Mrs. Marie Dales (1925) thus adds her testimony against the jay: 

 "I saw a Blue Jay harassing a Mourning Dove, eighteen or twenty 

 feet up in a tree. He would pluck out a mouthful of feathers and 

 then retreat for a moment. When the dove had settled down, back 

 would come the jay to torment her again. On closer observation 1 

 discovered the nest, wonderfully well hidden for a Mourning Dove's 

 nest. The jay kept up his attacks for several minutes and finally the 

 dove left the nest and went to her mate sitting on a limb farther out. 

 This was just the opportunity the jay was waiting for. He hopped to 

 the nest, pecked a hole in the egg and carried it off." William Brewster 

 (1937) states that he ''saw a Blue Jay take an egg from a Robin's nest 

 and fly off with it, hotly pursued by the outraged Robin." 



The following story, sent to Mr. Bent by Dr. Daniel S. Gage, gives 

 an interesting sidelight on the blue jay's character: "1 once saw a 

 demonstration that animals note the warning cries of the blue jay. I 

 was walking on a trail in the Flat Top Mountains of Colorado. A 

 porcupine was waddling along ahead of me. The trail ran through an 

 open space several hundred yards across, dense woods bordering it on 

 all sides. The porcupine was going away from me and did not notice 

 me, as he could not see behind him as he waddled along. He stopped 

 repeatedly to nibble at some plants at the side of the trail. I halted 

 each time he stopped to bite at a plant, and he did not note me at all, 

 although I was only a few feet behind him. Suddenly, from the woods 

 some hundred of yards away, a blue jay shrieked his jay, jay, jay. He 

 had seen me. Instantly, the porcupine raised his quills, rose to his hind 

 feet and sniffed in each direction. Then he noticed me, although I was 

 standing perfectly still, eyed me carefully, his quills erect. Then finally, 

 with angry mien and raised quills, he dropped down and ran as fast as 

 he could into the forest." 



Aretas A. Saunders (MS.) reports: "A family of jays came to my 

 bird bath fairly regularly late in summer. Six birds would come to- 

 gether and stand about the edge of the bath while each one in turn 

 bathed." and Mr. Bent (MS.) calls attention to the jay's habit of sun- 



