Hints to Audubon Wo7^kers. 



Webster City, Iowa: "None of our winter 

 birds are so social as the bluejays. We see 

 them every day during our long, cold win- 

 ters. Our barnyards are their favorite re- 

 sorts, where they walk about very familiarly 

 among the poultry and domestic animals, 

 feeding upon the scattered or half digested 

 corn. Last night (Jan. 6), while I was pass- 

 ing a straw stack, a jay went whirling out 

 of a small hole into which it had crawled a 

 foot or more. This morning, as I write, the 

 mercury is down to 24, so I suppose my 

 jay had made the best possible provision to 

 protect himself from the approaching low 

 temperature. These birds and our little 

 chickadees seem able to endure such ex- 

 treme cold better than any others that re- 

 main with us all the year round. Soon after 

 sunrise on any of these cold, clear mornings, 

 they can be heard merrily chirping in the 

 neighboring groves and thickets."* 



In another number of the Naturalist he 

 says: "So tame are they here, the little 

 daughter of a friend of mine saw a bluejay 

 very busily pecking at some object, doubt- 

 less an ear of corn. Approaching stealthily, 

 she clapped her hands upon his sides and 

 captured him ! It is amusing to see them 

 eat a kernel of our large western corn. 

 They cannot swallow the grains whole, and 

 are compelled to break them into two or 

 more pieces. This they do with powerful 

 strokes of their bills, while holding the grain 

 upon the ground or other hard surface, 

 with one foot. These strokes come down 

 as systematically as a blacksmith hits a hot 

 iron with his hammer ! Often three or four 

 blows are needed to divide the object, so it 

 can be swallowed and the bird looks round 

 at every stroke to see if the coast is clear. 

 But back in western New York and Penn- 

 sylvania, they were shy and secretive, living 

 for the most part in the grand old woods. 

 It seems to me this difference in habits may 

 be largely due to the scarcity of timber in 



* American Naturalist, Vol. XV., No. 4, p. 319, 

 April, 1881. 



this region, which makes it a necessity for 

 them to live near the abodes of men. As 

 population increases, their habits of famili- 

 arity are increased, and so the bluejay has 

 become one of the tamest and most domes- 

 tic of our Iowa birds."* 



In this region the bluejay is an irregular 

 guest. Sometimes he is here for only a few 

 days in the fall; often he will visit us when 

 the hawks return in the spring, and tease 

 the young observer by imitating the red- 

 tail's cry. Then, if the fancy takes him, he 

 will spend the winter with us, showing com- 

 paratively little of the timidity Mr. Aldrich 

 found in those of western New York. 



Last fall they were here for some time, 

 but when I was congratulating myself on 

 having them here for the winter they left, 

 and did not return till the middle of Janu- 

 ary. Then one of them suddenly appeared 

 on a tree in front of the kitchen window. 

 He seemed to have been there before, for 

 he flew straight down to the corn boxes. 

 The gray squirrels had eaten out the sweet- 

 est part of the kernels and he seemed dis- 

 satisfied with what they had left, dropping 

 several of the pieces after he had picked 

 them up. But after swallowing a few ker- 

 nels he took three or four in his bill and 

 flew up in a maple. There he must have 

 deposited some of them in a crotch at the 

 body of the tree, for after he had broken 

 one in two under his claw — striking it with 

 sledge-hammer blows, as Mr. Aldrich de- 

 scribes it — he went back to the crotch, picked 

 up something, flew back on the branch, and 

 went through the process over again. The 

 second time he flew down to the corn boxes 

 he did the same thing — ate two or three 

 kernels, and then filled his bill full and flew 

 off — this time out of sight. What a good 

 business man he would make ! All his mo- 

 tions are like this unique performance, 

 time-saving, decided, direct. Once during 

 the morning he flew down to the boxes 



* Amencan Naturalist, Vol. XV., No. 8, p. 654- 

 655, August, 1881. 



