286 



"Mr. Henry M. Berry, of Iowa City, Iowa, claims to have 

 seen Blue Jays suck the contents of four eggs of the wood 

 thrush while the old bird was only a few feet distant doing 

 its best to drive them away." 



"Mr. B. F. Goss, of Pewaukee, Wis., declares that they are 

 the worst robbers of all, and that their destruction of the 

 eggs and young of small birds is appalling." 



"Mr. T. J. Bull, of Hot Springs, Ark., writes: While standing 

 on the observatory on Hot Spring Mountain, I saw beneath 

 me a pair of Red birds chirping in great distress, and also 

 noticed a Blue Jay fly away. Upon looking more closely, I 

 discovered a nest with one young bird in it. * * * in about 

 half an hour the jay returned to the nest, picked up the young 

 bird, and flew away with it." 



Ml*. F. E. L. Beal, Biologist of the U, S. Department 

 of Ag'riculture, Washington, D. C,. has examined the 

 stomachs of nearly 300 Blue Jays, with a result which 

 justifies him in stating that this species "certainly does 

 far more good than harm." 



The careful inevstigations made by Mr. Beal showed 

 that in "202 stomachs collected in every month of the 

 year from twenty-two states and the District of Colum- 

 bia," the fc od consisted "of 24.3 per cent, of animal mat- 

 ter and 75.7 per cent, of vegetable matter or a trifle 

 more than three times as much vegetable as animal." 

 The animal food Mr. Beal states 



Chiefly made up of insects, with a few spiders, myriapods, 

 snails and small vertebrates, such as fish, salamanders, tree 

 frogs, mice and birds * * but remains of birds were found in 

 only two, and the shells of small bird's eggs in three of the 292 

 stomachs * * * Shells of eggs which were identified as those 

 of domesticated fowls, or some bird of equal size, were found 

 in eleven stomachs." 



Mr. Beal also found that 



"The great bulk of the insect food consists of beetles, grass- 

 hopers and caterpillars, with a few bugs, wasps and flies, and 

 an occasional spider and myrlapod." 



