198 YEARBOOK OF THE U. §. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
farmyards in search of food. They remain throughout the year in most 
parts of their range, and their beautiful blue plumage is particularly 
conspicuous in the fall and winter months, when the trees are partly or 
wholly denuded of foliage. Their saucy, independent airs, sprightly 
manners, brilliant colors, and jaunty, plumed caps have gained them 
many friends, in spite of the fact that their food habits are supposed 
to be somewhat detrimental to the interests of the farmer. So com- 
pletely is this latter fact forgotten in the gloom and nakedness of 
winter that it is a common practice in many places, notably in New 
England, to place beds of chaff upon the snow into which corn is seat- 
tered each day in order to attract the jays. When the ground is well 
covered with its wintry fleece, they may be seen at all hours of the day 
eagerly pecking in the chaff for the welcome morsels, and their pres- 
ence in the garden and on the lawn relieves to some extent the winter 
dearth of bird life. 
The vocal powers of this bird, while by no means to be despised, are 
not as pleasing as is its plumage, and most of its notes can be consid- 
ered agreeable only by association. Jays are more or less garru- 
lous all the year, but are particularly noisy at harvest time when 
laying up a supply of food for winter. They also exhibit considera- 
ble powers of mimicry and imitate the notes of many other birds with 
considerable success. One which was kept in captivity by Mr. Syl- 
vester D. Judd learned to pronounce several English names distinctly, 
as well as to give a schoolboy’s yell and to whistle for a dog. 
Blue jays have been charged with eating grain, devouring fruit, and 
destroying the eggs and young of other birds. It is also asserted that 
they devour numerous insects, and thus to some extent counterbal- 
ance the harm they do. Many cases of nest robbing might be cited, 
but it will be sufficient to give a few notes of field observers. 
Mr. Henry M. Berry, of Iowa City, Iowa, claims to have seen blue 
jays suck the contents of four eggs of the wood thrush while the old 
bird was only a few feet distant doing its best to drive them away. 
Mr. B. F. Goss, of Pewaukee, Wis., declares that they are the worst 
robbers of all, and that their destruction of the eggs and young of 
small birds is appalling. 
Mr. T. J. Bull, of Wot Springs, Ark., writes: ‘‘ While standing on the 
observatory on Hot Springs Mountain, I saw beneath me a pair of red- 
birds chirping in great distress, and also noticed a blue jay fly away. 
Upon looking more closely, I discovered a nest with one young bird 
init. * * * Jn about half an hour the jay returned to the nest, 
picked up the young bird, and flew away with it.” 
In view of such explicit testimony from observers whose accuracy 
can not be impeached, special pains have becn taken to ascertain how 
far the charges were sustained by a study of the bird’s food. An ex- 
amination was made of 292 stomachs collected in every month of the 
year from 22 States, the District of Columbia, and Canada. 
