moose bird, camp robber, lumberjack, and whiskey jack. The 

 last name is a corruption from Chippewa and should not be 

 taken to imply that he is fond of the white man's strong 

 drink. But of the white man's camp food he certainly is 

 fond, and I have found only one item of camp grub that he 

 will neither steal nor accept as a gift. 



I do believe that these birds living for many generations 

 in a country, where Indians and Whites have trapped and 

 hunted and have built their campfires, have learned that a 

 campfire always means food of some kind. 



One summer, while camping at Lake Itasca, I became well 

 acquainted with a family of four whiskey jacks, who made 

 their home in the spruces and tamaracks near a beaver pond 

 on Nicollet creek. I made camp near the pond several times 

 and every time these jays in their monkish garb of slate, and 

 with a whitish cowl, emerged from somewhere in the thicket 

 as soon as I had my fire well started. 



If birds could choose their garb, I should say that the 

 spruce jays chose theirs to facilitate their preying on the 

 innocent. From their garb and white heads one might judge 

 them to be the most kind-hearted philanthropists, if mischief 

 and roguery did not fairly beam out of their black eyes. 



With a little encouragement the family at the beaver 

 pond became very bold. One perched on a stick a few inches 

 from our fire and we had to shoo him away, because his evi- 

 dent intention was to steal a piece of ham out of our frying 

 pan. 



I suppose in nature they eat principally seeds and insects; 

 in camp they rejected only one thing. They took ham and 

 bacon, both raw and fried. Bread and biscuits were welcome, 

 eggs, potatoes, boiled and fried, and canned beans. After hav- 

 ing given them of everything else, I threw a raw onion to 

 one of them and he flew away with it. When he returned I 

 offered him another onion, but he declined the gift, nor would 

 the other jays touch onions. In some way he had passed 

 the word around that we were not above trying to fool a 

 trusting and pious jay. Onions were the one thing they had 

 no use for. 



In order to see how close they would come, I pegged down 



6 



