No. 4.] BIRDS ON THE FARM. 147 



much of their time in these Fells. In 1891 the land was 

 owned mainly by individuals, and was a great resort for 

 gunners. Hares and grouse were rare. Crows and jays 

 were not exceedingly common, and the smaller land birds 

 Avere found in such numbers as are usual about our cities. 

 Within two years after the Metropolitan Park Commission 

 took the land, and stopped gunning, trapping and snaring 

 by a remarkably efficient system of police protection, hares, 

 grouse, jays and crows became nuich more numerous, but 

 many of the smaller birds which breed in the Fells decreased 

 somewhat in numbers. Our observers found that the effo-s 

 and young of these birds were being destroyed mainly by 

 crows and jays, which were often seen during the breeding 

 season searching the woods for them and destroying them. 



Most farmers know the bird-nesting habits of the croAV, 

 — how it sneaks about the house and orchard in the early 

 morning hours, stealing eggs and nestlings from the nests 

 of robins and other small birds. Similar habits of the jays 

 are also notorious. Still, it is not so very often that these 

 birds are actually seen in the act of eating the eggs of small 

 birds. Crows may commonly be seen to destroy the eggs 

 of herons or sea birds, when these birds are frightened from 

 their breeding places by the approach of men. In their 

 eagerness to secure the eggs or young before the return of 

 the parents, crows sometimes become quite daring. This 

 trait of their character I have often observed when in heron- 

 ries or on the rock}^ islands of the coast, where sea birds 

 breed ; but it is far more difficult to catch them in the act 

 of robbino; the nests of small birds, which are scattered 

 singl}^ in woods, groves, orchards and undergrowth, where 

 the crow or jay can readily keep in hiding behind the 

 foliage. 



When we first occupied the farm in Wareham, tAvo pairs 

 of jays were breeding in the "robin roost," but no crows 

 bred in the woods about the place. Both croAvs and jays 

 Avere very shy. CroAA^s seldom came into the "robin roost," 

 nor Avere they troublesome about the farm. Under such 

 protection as we were able to give, the jays increased so 

 that by January, 1902, there were at least fifteen pairs in 



