Mar., 1907 



COMMUNICATIONS 



63 



over strain its senility to win a "jay" reputa- 

 tion. My informant tells that the ' sport 

 last season produced 6,000 counted scalps; 

 many more unrecorded. The sport is stimu- 

 lated by prizes — sportsman's sundries, guns, 

 etc., etc., paid for out of the subscribed pool. 



I was told "the Tr^t prize is a |;5o gun and 

 the farmer's boy" (who probably learns 

 ornithology, by s iggestion) is "after that gun," 

 and "gives the jay no rest," Thus the story 

 runs, and the moral which our friends advance 

 is "that last season was the best for quail for a 

 long time." I do not desire to sound one note 

 of censure upon these determined men; but if 

 the main object is to save quail eggs, one natur- 

 ally asks what advantageth it the quail, 

 whether he dies in embryo, or a few months later 

 falls a "sacrifice" to his kindly protector, who 

 had shielded him "in egg," and watched over 

 him in infancy, so that he might "pot" him in 

 early maturity! 



I presume the species of jays which are 

 killed are the ordinary Pacific Coast species, 

 Aplieloconia californica and Cyauocitta stelleii , 

 species which have been investigated by our 

 esteemed member, Prof. F. E. L. Beal of the 

 Biological Survey, and others, and the evidence 

 obtained permits the conclusion, that while the 

 blue jay is a marauder and guilty in degree, 

 it is not so to the extent which those who know 

 it only b}' "its bad name" a:credit the unfortu- 

 nate bird. 



Prof. Beal tells us that in the stomachs of 

 141 California jays 35 per cent of the contents 

 for the year consisted of animal matter and 65 

 per cent vegetable; traces of egg shells were 

 found on'y in twenty-one stomachs; in another 

 series of 300 stomachs only three contained egg 

 shells and two, onl}?, bones of birds." 



I think it would be well within the scope of 

 the C. O. C. if each member, and there are 

 members in almost all parts of the State, would 

 take the trouble of investigating scientifically 

 the habits and foods of the blue jays as they 

 were found in that especial district, and for- 

 warding the results of such observations, to the 

 secretary of the club. It is the dut}' of such a 

 club as the C. O. C. to be able to state exactly 

 the economic value or otherwise of any prom- 

 inent species of bird. It does seem a question- 

 able proceeding to slaughter in a single season 

 over 8,000 individuals of a species, if there is 

 no more valid reason for so doing than that the 

 sportsman may form a nursery -preserve of 

 some other species, whose economic value as 

 an agricultural asset may actually be of a 

 much lower value. 



I have every confidence that when it can be 

 shown that the blue jay, or any other black- 

 listed species, has qualities which entitle it 

 to an intelligent consideration, and which in 

 equity mitigate its evil reputation, it will be 

 found that the good sense of the sportsman, not 



forgetting the apt kindliness of the "farmer's 

 boy" will find him a less ardent competitor for 

 "the prize-gun" and still less ambitious to attain 

 a doubtful heroism in the "awful slaughter" 

 of a species "during the early spring months." 

 I submit this matter to the members of the 

 C. O. C. — ask th°m to graciously aid in obtain- 

 ing facts — and indeed in all cases of appeal to 

 be an ever ready and competent court of equity 

 in all matters pertaining to our local ornithology. 

 Respectfully yours, 

 Frederick W. D'Evei.yn, 

 President, Cooper Oniitliological Club. 



APROPOS OF ECa-COLLRCTING 



Editor The Condor: 



vSome of those who read your pages have 

 been both interested and amused at the trend 

 of the controversies in the matter of egg-col- 

 lecting. There is a broad streak of humor in 

 the matter-of-factness with which the opponents 

 of egg-collecting take themselves so seriously 

 that their position would, if universally ad- 

 mitted, utterl}' obliterate every other domain 

 of bird study than their own from the curricula 

 of that great l-niversity in which all thought- 

 ful men are students. But biological investiga- 

 tion is not all of knowledge; even as the 

 esihe/ik which weaves its own poes}' aljout the 

 devious pursuits of the ultra-collector is not all 

 of life. Those who fume and fulminate 

 against the egg-collector would seem utterly to 

 over-look the educative element in collecting. 



To illustrate: Correspondence in which, 

 with aims largely personal, he has been en- 

 gaged during the past two years, has brought 

 the writer into contact with a large number of 

 bird students. Many of these have been known, 

 at least bj' name, to some of us for many years. 

 As we remember them twenty j'ears ago, they 

 were just egg-collectors — nothing else. Today 

 they are students of bird life. No more exact 

 investigators than a few of them are to be 

 found in all the ranks of the American Orni- 

 thologists' Union. If, then, the acquiring of 

 scientific data be a snuuiiiiin boiuim, surely the 

 early and erratic and impulsive career of ever}' 

 one of these "bird-men" has been richly worth 

 the while. 



A generation ago there was many a boy who 

 spent the bulk of his spare time in turning 

 somersaults or in standing on his head. Thus 

 he learned the ins and the outs of the wrong- 

 side-ups and the right-side-downs of things. 

 And toda}', with the putting awaj' of childish 

 things, these sume amusing acrobats are build- 

 ing rail-roads, digging canals and tunne's — are 

 strenuously "getting after" the s-undr}' octopi 

 that have so wondroush' thriven of late in the 

 troubled seas of American commerce. 



If, then, the faddists who teach "nature- 



