THE (^OLOGtST. 



29 



The Blue Jay. 



As (111:' walks along tlu'ough the 

 woods on ;i sunniu'V day, he will invar- 

 ial>Iy hear the well-known, but harsh 

 er.V of the Blue Jay; this bird is viu-y 

 abundant in almost all parts of the 

 Uiiited States; they are somewhat gre- 

 garious in their feeding, but unusually 

 solitary in their nesting habits; the nest 

 of the Blue Jay is a very bulky affair, 

 composed of twigs and an oeeasional 

 rag; they alwaj's line their nest with 

 string and tine roots; they lay from 

 four to six eggs of a dull green eolor, 

 spotted all over with blotches of olive- 

 green. The only fault I have to find 

 with this bird is its natural prosj^en- 

 sity for uest robbing. Most farmers 

 consider this bird as a great nuisance, 

 but in my estimation this is a mistaken 

 idea, for the reason that the Blue Jay 

 destroys innumerable insects that would 

 otherwise eat up the crcjps. The Blue 

 Jay is very j)Ugnacious, often tighting 

 with l)irds a great deal larger than 

 itself. The Blue Jay is often confined 

 in cages and I have heard that they can 

 be learned to talk, but I have never 

 heard one myself. I have noticed that 

 the Blue Jay, in finding material for its 

 nest, breaks dead twigs from the ti'ces 

 instead of picking them up from the 

 ground. The majority of the Blue 

 Jays pass the winter in the same vicin" 

 ity as they do the breeding season. 

 H. E. Hershey, 

 Otoe Co., Neb. 



Harris's Woodpecker in Nebraska. 



Along the latter part of Dec(Mul)er, I 

 was ualkiug through a strip of timber 

 al)out one-half mile west of town, when 

 right in fi'<uit of me, I heard the raj)- 

 ping of some Woodpecker. 1 walked 

 nearer as silently as possible, wlu-n a 

 Flicker llcw up and away. I walked 

 on more lapidly, then thinking that 

 was all there was, when out jumiied j 



what I thought at first sight, was a 

 Downj' Woodpecker. It lit on a stiunj) 

 al)out ten yards ah -ad of me and I 

 c(juld see it plainly. It was much to 

 large for a Downy and I though to dark 

 for a Hairy. I wauhcd ir for almost 

 an hour. It came (luite near me sever- 

 al times, but ilew away almost as soon 

 as it .saw me. 



At last the male (a male I think) 

 came up and I saw tluMu no more that 

 day. 



I went home not knowing what 1 had 

 seen. 



The following Tlnu'^day a traveling- 

 man, who, is 'piite a "bird crank," came 

 around and 1 took him out. As .soon 

 as he laid eyes on my l)ird he said, "Boy, 

 thats a Harris's Woo(li)ecker." Well I 

 was glad to hear that, for several of 

 our local sages (?) had declared that I 

 had only seen a Downy or perhaps a 

 Hairy Woodpecker. 



M. H. Reeu, 

 Otoe Co., Neb. 



Unusual Nesting of the Downy- 

 Woodpecker. 



As the edit(n" of the OoLOGiST asks, 

 among other things, for articles on pe- 

 culiarities of the nesting of our birds, I 

 will give an instance <jf unusual nesting 

 of the Downy Woodpecker. 



On April 23, I found a Yellow-shafted 

 Flicker's nest, apparently tinished in a 

 rotten stub of an apple tree in an old 

 orchard. As I was passing the orchard 

 June 10, I went to the tree and foinul 

 the upper part of the stub had been 

 broken off, leaving the h(de open.. I 

 looked inside and saw three pure white 

 fresh eggs measuriug 80 x 60 lying on a 

 rather bulky uest of grass stalks antl 

 horse hair, the latter being pretty well 

 distributed through the glass and not 

 in any way forming a lining to th.e 

 ne.st. The uest is rather shallow and 

 loosely m.-ide. 1 took the eggs jtnd 

 nest, and the birds immediateiv made 



