Concerning the Bad Repute of Whiskey John 113 



never straggle a short day's journey ? Why is it that an omnivorous 

 bird, intelligent, restless, enterprising, fearless, apparently capable of adap- 

 tations and certainly attracted by the neighborhood of man, belonging 

 to an order of birds which is eminently civilizable, is so closely restricted 

 in its distribution ? There is no climatic barrier; there is no noteworthy 

 difference in the vegetal faunas of places within and without his limits; 

 there is no dietary restriction as in the case of some local birds. Here 

 is a very interesting ornithological puzzle. 



The nest and eggs of the Canada Jay I have never seen. A stand- 

 ing offer of two dollars apiece for the eggs, though repeated several years, 

 failed to bring in a single specimen. Woodsmen seem very ignorant of 

 their breeding habits, and the only positive statement that I remember 

 was the remarkable information volunteered by a lumberman that the 

 tr Beef-bird " nested and had young every month in the year. It is well 

 known, however, that they nest' in March when the snow is still very 

 deep in the woods. The first of June I have seen the young, fully 

 feathered and larger than parents, and with the edges of their bills still 

 yellow. They were a very dark blackish slate, wholly unlike the adult. 

 This plumage seems not to have been generally noticed, though it is worn 

 some time. 



On considering the evident reluctance of woodsmen to hunt up the 

 nests of this bird, I have suspected that there may be some superstition 

 connected with the bird similar to that which Mr. L. M. Turner records 

 of the Labrador sub-species. The Indians there believe that " if a per- 

 son sees the eggs in the nest, and especially if he counts them, some 

 great misfortune will befall him." This is curiously substantiated in Mr. 

 E. W. Nelson's account of the Alaskan sub-species, where he notes 

 that the natives refused large bribes rather than take the risk of angering 

 the bird by stealing its nest. The superstition applies only to the eggs, 

 and is, I suspect, coincident with the distribution of the bird, though 

 I never thought to inquire of our hunters and Indians on the subject. 

 Indeed, unless it were chanced upon, its authenticity as a superstition 

 would be doubtful, as the legend- hunter in Maine has only to state what 

 he wants and he gets all he pays for. The seekers of the marvelous 

 are sure to be satisfied. 



How the native hunters always hated Whiskey Jack! They never 

 had a good word for him, and a bullet was their usual greeting. The 

 camper came home to find his hut invaded; the deer-stalker had his 

 carcasses of venison riddled by their sharp bills and unfit for market; 

 the trapper's sable were half-ruined in the traps, and, more provoking 

 yet, his traps were robbed of their bait within five minutes after they had 

 been set. It was hard work to plod all day through the lonesome, snowy 

 wilderness, carrying a heavy bag of bait, and to feel that he was doing 



