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Bird - Lore 



their discovery of this nest, bothered 

 around it considerably, and were finally 

 driven away by the rightful owners who 

 then set up housekeeping. 



The contents of the nest were out of 

 my sight, but things seemed to be going 

 along smoothly. Several weeks later we 

 found exactly under the nest, on a quiet 

 day when there was no wind to explain 

 the event, a baby bird which apparently 

 had just fallen there. It was absolutely 

 unable to fly and so could not have come 

 from a distance, had not been there very 

 long, as we knew, and there was no other 

 nest in the entire tree. The incident occurred 

 in the morning. 



This little bird had just barely, almost 

 to a day's development, reached the point 

 where an ordinary observer would easily 

 recognize its species. A day before (I 

 have watched their rapid development) 

 it might have been a little hard to name 

 it. Today it was plainly and unquestion- 

 ably a baby Blue Jay. There was no Blue 

 Jay nest even in the vicinity of the tree. 

 After a few days the nest, which had had 

 all the customary care from the parent 

 Robins, graduated a small family of 

 unquestionable young Robins. 



I have never heard of a similar case, but 

 from these observations I personally can 

 reach but one conclusion. That is, that 

 these Jays, ever adaptable as all Jays are, 

 had played a trick slightly suggestive of 

 that used by the Cowbird, though not at 

 all intentionally. The story would read 

 like this: 



Finding the nest perfect and unprotected, 

 they had, despite its difference from their 

 own, appropriated it. The Jays are 

 suflSciently adaptable to make this con- 

 ceivable at least. Having stolen the 

 home, they had gotten as far as laying one 

 egg there when the Robins returned, 

 discovered them, and, strong in the faith 

 of justice, drove out the intruders. The 

 problem of the egg there, even though it 

 did not match hers, might in an inani- 

 mate-appearing object like that not great- 

 ly disturb the mother, and she laid her 

 own eggs beside it and incubated them 

 together. 



When the young hatched, they at 

 first looked so much alike that they at- 

 tracted no attention, for the differences 

 between naked baby birds is very slight 

 except in size, which here would not be 

 strikingly patent. Thus the interloper 

 shared alike the food-supplies and grew 

 with his foster brothers until one morning 

 the mother bird noticed something suspi- 

 cious, a bristling of blue quill feathers 

 beginning to appear upon one baby, and 

 she recognized an illegal nestling. Then 

 came prompt action, and the nest con- 

 tained only little Robins. 



It may be that my explanation is too 

 far-fetched, but from what I actually saw 

 of these birds I do not think so. I believe 

 I have read the story aright. If not, who 

 can? 



To my regret I was unable to raise the 

 little Blue Jay by hand. Perhaps he was 

 injured internally by his fall; perhaps I 

 failed in my feeding methods. — F. H. 

 Hodgson, Head of Biology Department, 

 Montclair High School, Montdair, N. J . 



An Albino Robin 



As several reports of albino birds have 

 been made in Bird-Lore, I should like to 

 report an albino Robin which has been on 

 my brother's place all summer, and less 

 frequently on ours, which adjoins, though 

 I saw it once in our bird-bath. I think 

 it was a femvle, but the back was quite 

 conspicuously white and the breast 

 suffused with white. It came in April and 

 stayed very constantly around my 

 brother's house, so we thought it was nest- 

 ing nearby, but we never saw it with 

 young. Our houses have been closed for 

 over a month, but a friend told me she 

 saw it frequently during our absence. — 

 Ellen M. Shove, Fall River, Mass. 



A Family of Screech Owls 

 on Stuart Acres 



Purple Martins are not the only birds 

 that appreciate the protection offered all 

 useful feathered creatures on Stuart 

 Acres; the Screech Owls also very soon 



