NORTHERN BLUE JAY 4l 



small aspens growing by the Lake-shore where they were catching flying 

 insects. In pursuit of these they would mount straight upward from ten 

 to twenty feet and then return to their perches by swooping downward 

 on set wings. Their flights were altogether so very like those of King- 

 birds similarly engaged that I mistook them for birds of the latter 

 species at first glance." 



G. Gill ( 1920) telis of a blue jay trying to catch a mouse. "On Feb. 

 2, 1918," he says, "the scream of a Blue Jay rang out through the air, 

 and, looking toward the barn, I saw the bird swooping down to the 

 ground after something. I was interested at once, and at first I could 

 not see what was running across the snow ; when it reached the barn, 

 where it was clear, I saw that it was a mouse. 



"The Blue Jay boldly followed it right into the barn, dodging in and 

 out of the wagons and pecking at the mouse at every chance it got. 

 About this time the Blue Jay's mate joined the chase, but she was just 

 a little too late. The mouse, nearly beaten, hopped into a friendly hole 

 and escaped. For a little while the pair watched the hole, and then 

 gave it up." 



This would appear strange prey for a jay. but F. E. L. Beal (1897) 

 states that "the jay kept in captivity by Mr. Judd showed a marked 

 fondness for mice, and would devour them apparently with great relish." 



W. L. McAtee (1914) calls attention to a bizarre feeding habit of 

 the jay apparently seldom resorted to. He quotes Grace Ellicott from 

 the Guide to Nature, 1908, p. 168, as follows: 



The occupants of a recently disturbed ant hill were excitedly crawling about 

 the hill and the adjacent cement walk. They were large, and to a blue jay 

 in a neighboring tree they must have looked luscious, for flying down, the jay 

 began to pick them up with an eagerness that seemed to say that this was an 

 opportunity that might come his way but once. As rapidly as he could do it 

 he seized the ants, with each capture lifting a wing, sometimes one, sometimes 

 the other, and seemed to deposit his prey amongst the feathers back of and under- 

 neath it. So quickly he worked and with such evident eagerness to make the 

 most of this rare occasion that, as he lifted the wing, putting his bill amongst 

 the feathers, it often seemed that he must lose his balance and topple over 

 backwards. But he kept his poise, worked on with all speed and had laid in 

 quite a store when a passerby frightened him from his task. Whether this jay 

 had only just discovered the most convenient of all storehouses for his use or 

 whether this food was to be carried to the nest for the young, for it was nesting 

 time, he was most interesting. 



McAtee comments on the observation as follows: 



This Blue Jay was therefore taking advantage of the instinct of ants when 

 disturbed to fasten their jaws onto any object that presents itself. ♦ * * These 

 three most interesting observations suggest that numerous birds may have the 

 same or other wonderful habits about which we are ignorant. They should 

 stimulate minute and careful research and comfort those v/ho fear that all the 



