414 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 
The food of the Jays includes almost everything eatable, but they show 
special fondness for acorns, beech nuts, small fruits and insects. They 
rob the nests of smaller birds frequently, yet so far as our personal observa- 
tion goes such robberies are restricted to particular birds and are by no 
means general. With at least half a dozen Blue Jays’ nests under observa- 
tion each year we have known an entire season to pass without the detection 
of a single act of violence on the part of the Jays. On the other hand, 
we have occasionally known several nests of Robins and Chipping Sparrows 
to be destroyed within a week. 
The Blue Jay is a rather general feeder on insects and probably does a 
large amount of good in this way, especially since it does not disdain hairy 
caterpillars but appears to eat them with some pleasure. Probably the great- 
est good done isin eating caterpillars and grasshoppers, but it may be useful 
also in consuming the bark-boring and wood-boring beetles and other large 
insects infesting woodlands. It gets a large part of its food from the ground 
and also buries or hides there any surplus that it may have. This is 
particularly true of small fruits, acorns, beechnuts and grain, although it 
also stores these things away in knot-holes, crevices in trees, and chinks 
behind loose sheets of bark. 
Undoubtedly the Blue Jay is an important factor in reforesting burnt or 
cut-over lands, since it is continually planting acorns, nuts and seeds of 
various kinds. Of course it also distributes the seeds of many of the fruits 
which it eats, as these are disgorged or pass through the intestines and are 
distributed under favorable conditions for growth. Mr. Amos Butler, 
of Indiana, believes that the Blue Jay distributes seeds of poison ivy ex- 
tensively in this way, but our own investigations indicate that it eats few 
if any poison ivy berries, and the distribution of these seeds is largely 
accomplished by other birds. Professor F. E. L. Beal, of the U. 8. Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, found no seeds of poison Rhus in the 292 Blue Jay 
stomachs which he examined. He says “Jays do not eat the seeds of the 
poison ivy (Rhus radicans) or poison sumac (Rhus vernix). It is worthy 
of notice that the sumac seeds eaten are those of the harmless staghorn 
(Rhus hirta) and smooth sumac (Rhus glabra)” (Yearbook U. 8. Dept. 
Agr., 1896, 205). 
Under some circumstances the Blue Jay becomes very annoying in its 
injury to cultivated fruits. It frequently attacks ripening apples and pears, 
pecking holes in the sides of the largest and ripest fruits and injuring a much 
greater number than it can possibly use. Moreover, its example is quickly 
followed by other birds, who begin by enlarging the openings made by the 
Jay, but probably attack sound fruits after a taste has been obtained. 
When work on a tree of early apples has been once started the Jays, Red- 
siete Woodpeckers, Robins and Orioles sometimes destroy almost every 
apple. 
The Blue Jay has an immense variety of call-notes, many of which are 
decidedly musical, especially when heard at a little distance. Its ordinary 
harsh scream of “jay, jay” has given it its common name, but it has in 
addition a common yodling note which Seton Thompson writes “sir-roo-tle, 
sir-roo-tle, sir-roo-tle,’’ which he says is uttered in a subdued undertone; the 
same syllables, however, express very well one of its common calls in autumn 
which may be heard at a distance of a quarter of a mile or even more. It 
also imitates the calls of the Red-tailed and Red-shouldered Hawks with 
such precision and accuracy as to mislead many birds and even deceive 
the practiced human ear. During quiet days in winter, and especially 
