rather coiiiiiioii «illi I lie species iiuder Loii.sideratioii. 

 as I found, in 1885, at several localities which were 

 visited iu Orauge and other counties along the St. 

 Johns river, that special efforts were made by the 

 residents to destroy these birds, on account of the 

 I'easons narrated in the preceding paragraphs. 



The Florida Blue Jay, a local race technically styled 

 (Cyanocitta cristaia florincola), is a little smaller and 

 has less while on tips of secondary and tail feathers 

 than the Blue Jay (Cyanodifa cristaia). It is also in 

 bad repute with Florida farmers who assort that ii 

 sncks the eggs of chickens. 



THE JAY KILLED BIRDS AND SQUIRREL. 



Referring to the Blue Jay, Audubon wrote: "It robsevery nest 

 it can find, sucks the eggs like ttie crow, or tears to pieces and 

 devours the young birds. A friend once wounded a grouse 

 (Bonasa umbellus), and marked the direction which it followed, 

 but had not proceeded two hundred yards in pursuit, when he 

 heard something fluttering in the bushes, and found his bird 

 belabored by two blue jays who were picking out its eyes. 



The same person once put a flying squirrel into the cage of 

 one of these birds, merely to preserve it for one night; but on 

 looking into the cage about 11 o'clock next day he found the 

 mammal partly eaten. A blue jay at Charleston destroyed all 

 the birds of an aviary. One after another had been killed, and 

 the rats were supposed to have been the culprits, but no crevice 

 could be seen large enough to admit one. Then the mice 

 were accused, and war was waged against them, but still the 

 birds continued to be killed, first the smaller, then the larger, 

 until the Keywest pigeons, when it was discovered that a jay 

 which had been raised in the aviary was the depredator. He 

 was taken out and placed in a cage, with a ciuantity of corn, 

 flour and several small birds which he had just killed. The 

 birds he soon devoured, but the flour he would not condescend 

 m eat, and refusing every other kind of food, soon died. 



In the north it is fond of r;pe chestnuts, and in visiting the 

 trees is sure to select the choicest. When these fail it attacks 

 the beech nuts, acorns, peas, apples and green corn. Tn Lou- 

 isana they are so abundant as to prove a nuisance to the 



