PASSERES — CORVID^. 137 



more in evidence during the winter than during the sum- 

 mer, no doubt because he finds food more plentiful and more 

 easily obtained in towns and cities. During the winter the 

 jay is a great scavenger, visiting the kitchen waste barrel 

 regularly. He will eat almost anything that can be digested, 

 and sometimes other things as well. Corn and nuts furnish 

 a good share of his winter food, where they are plentiful. 

 His friends keep still about what he eats during the summer. 

 There is no doubt that many nests despoiled of eggs or even 

 young must be laid to his mischievous propensities. One 

 might be allowed to judge of his character by the manner 

 in which his neighbors receive him. The appearance of a 

 jay in any neighborhood is the signal for all the birds to 

 band together to drive him away. Prof. F. E. L. Beal's ex- 

 amination of 292 stomachs failed to sustain the almost uni- 

 versal testimony of the robbing proclivities of this bird. 

 There was some evidence of it but too little upon which to 

 base a sweeping condemnation. On the other hand, the Blue 

 Jay certainly does destroy large numbers of injurious in- 

 sects. 



While it is probably true that the Blue Jay is migratory 

 to some extent, the northernmost birds receding south a 

 greater or less distance to spend the winter, and the others 

 also crowding south to give place to them, it is not an ap- 

 preciable movement in Ohio. 



175. (486a.) Corvus corax principalis Ridgw. 123. 

 Northern Raven. 



Synonyms: Corvus corax, C. corax var. carnivorous, C. carniv- 

 orus. 

 Raven, American Raven. 

 Wilson, Am. Orn., IX, 1825, 136. 



The records seem to indicate that in Wilson's time the 

 Raven was so common along the lake shore, particularly 

 easterly, as to entirely supplant the Crow. It gradually de- 

 creased in numbers, until none were known except in the 

 extreme northwest. In 1882 Dr. Wheaton regarded it as 

 a "Rare winter visitor." Mr. Thos. Mikesell, of Wauseon, 



