Biological Papers. 137 



and secured a small shotgun that happened to be handy. 

 When I returned the jay flew a rod farther along on the fence. 

 However, it was not more than two rods away, an easy shot, 

 and I killed the bird. Mrs. Dyche, who was watching, had 

 meantime noticed the little wren fall by the side of the fence 

 from the spot where the jay first lit. I picked up the little 

 dead wren and on examination found a small cut under one 

 wing. There was no other cut or bruise on its body that I 

 could find. I now picked up the blue jay. It had a little bloody 

 heart in its beak. I dissected the wren and found that its 

 little heart had been pulled out through the small cut that the 

 jay had made under its wing. I dissected the jay and found 

 two hearts in its stomach, quite a little larger in size than the 

 one that had been pulled from the unfortunate little wren. 



The very next evening I saw a jay dart after a little young 

 wren, perhaps one of the same brood. My presence made it 

 possible for the little wren to get under cover of some small 

 bushes. The jay lit on the fence to watch. I secured my gun 

 and shot at the jay, crippling it so that it flew to a neighbor's 

 yard and died. I was reported to the city attorney, Mr. W. C. 

 Spangler, for shooting poor innocent birds. 



After recording such observations I cannot help but feel 

 somewhat like my small boy, who, after he had seen the jay 

 with his own eyes commit a number of robberies and murders, 

 said that "he had all the observations he wanted on jays rob- 

 bing nests and killing young birds, and that what he wanted 

 when he saw a jay was a gun." 



