136 Kansas Academy of Science. 



Mr. C. D. Bunker, my assistant in the museum at the 

 University, reported to me that the blue jays killed a number 

 of young chickens for him two years ago. The bodies of the 

 young chickens were more or less torn to pieces and partly 

 eaten up. He also reported two canary birds killed by blue 

 jays. The bird-cages were left on the porch. The jays caught 

 the little birds and pulled them out through the spaces between 

 the wires of the cage. Miss Alice Lichfield, a classmate of 

 mine at the University, told me a number of years ago that 

 the blue jays had killed a number of young chickens for her, 

 but she failed to notice how the bodies had been mutilated. 



Mr. Will Bullene, who lives a few blocks southeast of me, 

 and who, from his general knowledge of birds, is abundantly 

 able to make correct observations, told me of a neighbor of 

 his that had lost quite a number of young chickens, due to 

 blue jays. In this case there was a flock of about seventy-five 

 young chickens. They were kept in a coop and allowed to 

 run, after being fed, in quite a large runway enclosed by wire 

 screening. A number of the little birds had been found dead 

 in the runway, with their bodies mutilated. The owner was 

 puzzled to make out what it was that was doing the mischief. 

 Mr. Bullene suggested that some one be put to watch. It was 

 not long before a jay was seen to pounce upon a chicken and 

 pick it to death. After a few more chickens was killed, Mr. 

 Bullene set steel traps on the fence posts where the jays were 

 accustomed to light and caught a number of them. In this 

 particular case the jays picked the crops of the chickens open 

 and ate the feed, mostly corn chop. 



A number of other cases have been reported to me concern- 

 ing the jay's habit of robbing nests and killing young birds. 

 I will give but one more illustration of the jay's wickedness 

 in this line, and that came under my personal observation. 

 It was in August, 1887. A pair of house wrens had built their 

 nest in a little cubby-hole in the corner of our porch. One 

 afternoon, about five o'clock, while Mrs. Dyche and myself 

 were sitting on the porch, a little wren flew down from the 

 nest. It was a young bird, and that was the first time it had 

 ever tried its wings. While we were admiring the little mid- 

 get hopping about on the porch, a blue jay darted from some- 

 where and with a great flutter and commotion of its wings 

 grabbed the little wren and flew to a fence not more than 

 fifteen feet away. I made a few hurried steps into the house 



