204 YEARBOOK OF THE U. § DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
would seem to be furnished by the record in October and November. 
It must be admitted that throughout most parts of the blue jay’s range 
both corn and mast are equally accessible during these two months. 
The cornfields are ripe for the harvest, and lie open and unprotected, 
where the birds can gather their fill without Ict or hindrance. The 
forests also furnish an incalculable quantity of acorns, chestnuts, chin- 
quapins, and beechnuts, while the hedges and river banks teem with 
hazelnuts, and there seems no reason why the jays should not eat the 
food that they like. An examination of the stomachs will indicate 
best what they have actually eaten (fig. 42). Seventy-two stomachs 
taken in October show an average of over 64 per cent of mast, and 
eleven collected in November nearly 82 per cent, while the corn in each 
month aggregates only 1.1 and 0.9 per cent, respectively. It seems 
searcely possible to draw any other conclusion than that the blue jays 
prefer mast to corn, or indeed to any other vegetable food, for they eat 
the greatest amount at a time when fruit, grain, and other things are 
most abundant. The record for December shows that the taste for 
inast, far from being satisfied, has rather increased, and attains its 
maximum of almost 83 per cent; while only 10 per cent of corn has 
been taken instead of several other seeds and fruits which were eaten 
earlier in the season. It was the custom of the writer, at his home in 
Massachusetts, to bait the blue jays in winter with chaff and corn in the 
manner already mentioned, and he observed that the birds patronized 
these feeding places only so long as the ground was completely covered 
with snow. No sooner did any considerable area of bare surface ap- 
pear than the corn was discarded and no more birds were seen on the 
chaff until the earth was again covered with snow. The natural infer- 
ence was that the jays found something on the bare ground, presumably 
mast, which they preferred to corn. It is possible that this fondness 
for mast may affect the distribution of certain trees to some extent. 
A jay flying with a nut in its beak may drop it in mid-air or carry it 
away and perhaps store it forfuture use. Acorns and other nuts may 
be distributed in this way, and it is probable that many isolated oaks 
and chestnuts owe their origin to accidents of this kind. 
Jays show considerable taste in the choice of fruit. Apples were 
eaten only during January, February, and March, and consequently 
were merely frozen fruit left on the trees to decay, which should per- 
haps be reckoned as refuse rather than food. In the month of Mareh 
the consumption is greatest, amounting to more than 32 per cené. 
Fresh fruit is eaten to a slight extent in May, but the quantity 
increases rapidly in June, and attains more than 39 per cent in July, 
and then gradually diminishes until it disappears entirely after 
October. The jay is often included with other birds in the charge of 
habitnal stealing of cultivated fruit. Discarding apples which have 
no value, only four kinds of fruit are eaten which may be cultivated, 
namely, strawberries, currants, blackberries, and mulberries. No 
