A DEFENSE OF SOME BIRDS. 



ABBIE C. STRONG. 



To the Editor of Birds and All Nature: 



IN THE October number of Birds 

 AND All Nature was an article 

 containing a list of the enemies of 

 song birds and ordering their ban- 

 ishment, if one would enjoy the pres- 

 ence of the little songsters. Included 

 in the list were the blue jays. There 

 was also an article entitled, "A new 

 Champion for the English Sparrow." 



I always rejoice when someone comes 

 forward in defense of the despised class, 

 finding them not wholly faulty. The 

 same hand created all, and surely each 

 must be of some use. I feel like say- 

 ing something in favor of the blue jay. I 

 am sure that all will acknowledge that 

 thejayhasa handsomeform andrare and 

 beautiful plumage, which at least makes 

 him"athingof beauty;"he may notbe "a 

 joy forever," but surely a delight to the 

 eye. Formerly my home was in north- 

 ern Iowa, living many years in one 

 place in a town of about 6,000 inhabi- 

 tants. Our lawn was spacious for a 

 town, filled with shrubbery and trees, 

 both evergreen and deciduous. We 

 did not encourage cats, usually keeping 

 dishes of water here and there for the 

 accommodation of the birds, and other 

 attractions which they seemed to ap- 

 preciate, as numerous migratory birds 

 came each season, taking up their abode 

 with us, to their evident enjoyment and 

 giving us much pleasure. The jays 

 were always with us, were petted and 

 as they became friendly and tame, 

 naturally we were much attached to 

 them. The limb of a tree growing very 

 close to a back veranda had been 

 sawed off and a board nailed on the 

 top forming a table, where we daily 

 laid crumbs and a number of jays as reg- 

 ularly came after them. They were 

 fond of meat and almost anything from 

 the table. I found the jay to be a prov- 

 ident bird; after satisfying his appetite 

 he safely buried the remainder of his 

 food. I often noticed them concealing 

 acorns and other nuts in hollow places 

 in the trees, and noticed also that they 



were left till a stormy day which pre- 

 vented them from finding food else- 

 where as usual. I saw one bury a bit of 

 meat under leaves near a dead flower 

 twig; there came a rather deep fall of 

 snow that night, but the bird managed 

 to find it the next day with little diffi- 

 culty and flew off with a cry of delight. 

 The jay nested on the grounds, but that 

 did not seem to prevent other birds 

 from coming in great numbers and va- 

 riety and making their little homes 

 there also. I recall one year which was 

 but a repetition of most of the years. 

 The jays had a nest in a crab apple tree, 

 a cat bird nested in a vine close to the 

 house, a robin came familiarly to one of 

 the veranda pillars in front of the 

 house and built her solid nest of mud 

 and grass. A brown thrush took a 

 dense spruce for her nesting-place. A 

 blackbird, to my surprise, built a nest in 

 a fir tree. A grosbeak built a nest on a 

 swaying branch of a willow at the back 

 of the lot, and a bluebird occupied a 

 little house we had put in a walnut tree 

 for her convenience. 



The orioles were always in evidence, 

 usually making their appearance in 

 early May when the fruit trees were in 

 bloom; first seen busily looking the 

 trees over for insects. Generally they 

 selected an outreaching branch of a 

 Cottonwood tree, often near where they 

 could be watched from a veranda, 

 building their graceful nests and caring 

 for their little ones. The chattering 

 little wrens never questioned our friend- 

 liness, but always built loose little nests 

 quite within our reach, either in a box 

 we provided for them or over the door; 

 at the same time others had their little 

 homes in cozy places in the barn, or in 

 the loose bark of an old tree. Each 

 bird attended to its own affairs without 

 perceptible molestation from others, as 

 a rule. It was evident, however, that 

 the jays were not tolerated in company 

 with other birds to any great extent, 

 and I fancy they had a rather bad rep- 

 utation, for I noticed the birds took a 

 defensive position often when a jay 



