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reason chiefly Crows should be kept within proper limits as to numbers. Of late 

 years they have increased altogether too fast, and our small birds have suffered 

 in consequence. 



After the young birds leave the nest they move about with their parents and 

 feed on a most varied diet. They will make a raid on the fruit grower, and 

 demolish his cherries or raspberries if the idea strikes them, or they will prowl 

 along the lake shore and enjoy themselves for a few days on fish fare, after which 

 they will visit a pasture field and clear out all the wire worms, grubs and mice 

 they niay find there : in fact, very few things come amiss to them, as they roam 

 about through the country until the cold nights warn them to get together in 

 N>IIO place where they can get at least a bare subsistence to carry them over the 

 winter. 



As I have said before, Crows have increased too fast of late years, and we 

 have now too many of them in the country ; their numbers can easily be reduced 

 if a little attention be paid to the matter in the spring. Just at nesting time they 

 are less shy and wary than at any other season and can be approached in the trees 

 within shooting distance. If one of each pair was shot off their numbers would 

 soon be reduced to such an extent that the damage they could do would not be 

 noticeable. These birds are so well able to take care of themselves that even 

 more stringent measures might be adopted against them without any danger of 

 extermination, their natural enemies being very few, and those, of that class 

 against which man has carried on a most successful war. Of these the Great- 

 horned Owl was the most noteworthy, but the Great-horned Owl will kill the 

 poultry of a farmer who allows his fowls to roost out on winter nights, and so 

 the Owl must go and the Crow has one enemy the less. 



Raven. This species only occurs in the more northerly portions of the Pro- 

 vince, having retired before the encroachments of civilization. To the pioneer it 

 is sometimes a nuisance, poultry and young lambs falling easy victims to this 

 bird's strength and rapacity. They also destroy a large quantity of game, but 

 fortunately their number is so small, and the birds themselves so conspicuous, 

 that it is not difficult to get rid of then . 



Blue Jay. It is a pity that so beautiful and interesting a bird as this should 

 1>- possessed of such mischievous propensities as it is, but I am afraid that neither 

 its good looks nor its good acts can be said to balance its evil deeds. This bird, 

 like the common Crow, seems to forget its usual shyness when spring arrives and 

 will leave its wooded haunts and build its nest in gardens, orchards and shrubberies, 

 close to houses and quite within reach of evry person passing, nor does it affect 

 any sort of concealment as a rule. 1 have seen many nests so placed that they 

 were visible from public roads where people and vehicles were continually passing. 

 The female could quite readily be seen sitting, yet the birds carried on their duties 

 regardless of prying eyes. It seems a pity that their confidence should be abused. 

 but I am compelled to say that in all cases that came under rny observation the 

 Blue Jays badly repaid the persons in whose gardens they were protected and 

 allowed to raise their young. In the first place the} steal a large amount of small 

 fruit, and, further they rob and destroy the nests and young of other birds to 

 such an extent that they are positively injurious to agriculture, the birds they 

 destroy being all of that class whose food consists principally of insects, and with- 

 out whose assistance I doubt if we could succeed in raising any crop to maturity. 



The Blue Jays themselves, however, destroy no inconsiderable number of 

 insects, and they do no damage to grain ; they may occasionally pick off a little 

 corn from the cob, but that is about the extent of the injury they do in that 

 direction. Their unfortunate fondness for the young of other birds more valuable 



