VERMIN AND TRAPPING 103 



eyes in fact, any sort of eyes are very attractive 

 baits for jays, provided the trap is skilfully hidden. 

 But the best bait that I know of is a piece of the 

 yellow fat from the interior of a fowl. This reminds 

 me that once, while resetting a trap to such a bait, 

 after catching a jay, I caught my little finger in its 

 four-inch jaws. 



When it is desirable to thin jays, it is a capital 

 plan, and both sporting and speedy, to take out a 

 tame specimen and a gun to likely parts of the 

 woods. To your bird's squawks the wild ones will 

 come, and give you a shot or two at a stand. You 

 must be ready and pretty smart to hit the jays, 

 as they come silently and swiftly it is just a flash 

 of blue, white, and purple, and they are come and 

 gone. Failing a live jay, a useful imitation call 

 may be produced by a laurel-leaf and one's own 

 lips. But there is nothing to equal the genuine 

 squawk. Jays chiefly are responsible for the 

 emptiness of so many pigeons' nests, and there is 

 nothing like a sprinkling of jays for checking the 

 increase of home-bred pigeons. Unfortunately, jays 

 are even more fond of rifling the nests of turtle- 

 doves, which do as much good as pigeons do harm. 



Some owls occasionally kill young pheasants 

 (even when they are big as old partridges), 

 while others sometimes frighten them ; therefore, 

 all owls ought to be slain. So reason many keepers 

 who ought to know better. The truth is this : few 



