510 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



considered sufficient evidence on which to condemn the 

 bird. 



* ' Last spring I was disturbed several mornings by an 

 outcry among the birds in the trees near the house. A pair 

 of blue jays were on a marauding tour, and eggs were the 

 morning's bill of fare." (Thomas Allen, Bernardston, 

 Franklin County.) 



" The crows and jays are destructive to the sparrows, 

 robins and vireos that build in our orchard beside the 

 house, where I have a good chance to see them. I believe 

 the jays are about as bad as the crows. Several robins' 

 nests are broken up in this way every year, and always 

 one, and generally two or three, of each of the others." 

 (J. K. Burgess, Dedham, Norfolk County.) 



"I have a neighbor . . . who has shot one or two jays 

 in the very act of robbing eggs from nests." (Daniel Bal- 

 lard, Millington, Franklin County.) 



" I have seen blue jays repeatedly sitting on the edge of 

 a nest, eating the eggs. This season I found a nest of a 

 Vireo solitarius. ... I discovered a blue jay in the act of 

 eating up the eggs. When I went to the nest there was 

 only one left, and the shells of three others. I have had the 

 same experience this year with the nest of Dendroica virens. 

 I think jays torment these birds worse than any others. I 

 am convinced that jays, during nesting time, hunt for eggs 

 with great skill and regularity." (John E. Thayer, Lan- 

 caster, Worcester County.) 



Colonel Thayer also writes of Mr. William Brewster's 

 experience. This Mr. Brewster has told me of personally. 

 The methodical manner in which the jays investigated the 

 nests of other birds day after day, and destroyed the eggs, 

 has convinced him of their destructiveness. He says : "I 

 do not consider that owls, hawks (except the Cooper and 

 sharp-shinned), squirrels, weasels or even foxes do any 

 serious harm. The blue jay does very much harm to the 

 smaller birds by eating their eggs; and the crow is also 

 harmful in the same way, but to a less degree, according to 

 my experience." 



Mr. S. J. Harris of East Dedham, Norfolk County, speaks 



