JAY FAMILY. 55 
Mast forms the largest item of the jay’s food. This fact has some 
economic interest, since mast possesses considerable value as food 
for stock, especially hogs. A glance at the table will show the high 
percentages for the eight months from September to April inclusive, 
and then the sudden drop to the low rank it holds for the rest of the 
year. While the average consumption for the year is 38 percent, 
for these eight months alone it rises to nearly 57 percent, or more 
than half of the whole food. Doctor Merriam says that by the 
Indians this jay is called the oak planter. There is no doubt that 
all jays unconsciously aid in planting forest trees. Like the Cali- 
fornia woodpecker they habitually store up nuts and other large 
seeds, though unlike that bird they do not prepare storage places, 
but place them in forks of trees, cracks in old stumps or logs, behind 
loose pieces of bark, or bury them in the ground. Nuts are often 
dropped when being carried to a place of concealment, and sprout 
and grow to renew the forest. 
SUMMARY. 
The insect food, though small in amount, may be set down to the 
jay’s credit. By the destruction of birds’ eggs and young, it does 
serious mischief. Two items of its vegetable food, grain and fruit, 
are against the jay. In the case of grain, however, it is doubtful if 
much damage is done, since it is taken mostly after the harvest. If 
the grain taken in early spring is stolen from newly sown fields, it 
represents a real loss; but the jay is not known to pull up grain 
after it has sprouted, so that all it gets at this time must have been 
left uncovered, and is therefore of minor importance. After harvest 
it is common to see small companies of jays in fields, where they 
probably glean scattered kernels as well as some insects. In the 
matter of fruit. stealing there are no extenuating circumstances. 
Wherever orchards are near its haunts, the jay is a persistent and 
insatiable fruit thief. If he took only what is necessary to satisfy 
the appetites of himself and family, he might be endured for the sake 
of his better traits. But long after his hunger is appeased, he con- 
tinues to carry off fruit to store away, and thus his pilferings are 
limited only by his numbers and by the size of the fruit crop. More- 
over, much of the fruit which he pecks is left on the tree to rot, and 
more falls to the ground unfit for use, except by pigs. It is fortu- 
nate that only orchards situated near the jay’s usual haunts suffer 
severely. Those farther away are visited occasionally, but are not 
seriously damaged. Unlike many other birds which prey upon the 
earlier fruits, the jay continues his depredations as long as fruit is 
to be had. In an orchard closely watched by the writer 1t was 
found that when the earlier cherries were ripening, blackbirds, 
thrushes, orioles, grosbeaks, cedar birds, and linnets, as well as jays, 
