RAVENS 197 



Insects constitute about 22 per cent of the yearly food, 

 three-fourths of this amount being injurious species, such as 

 grasshoppers, caterpillars, and beetles. Small quantities also 

 of other animal food, such as spiders, millipeds, moUusks, crus- 

 taceans, mice, and fish are eaten, and the eggs and young of 

 wild birds are occasionally destroyed. 



Prof. Beal sums up the economic status of the jay as fol- 

 lows: 



The blue jay probably renders its best service to man in 

 destroying grasshoppers late in the season and in feeding on 

 hibernating insects and their eggs, as they do in the case of the 

 tent caterpillar and brown-tail moth. Such forest insects as 

 buprestid beetles and weevils of various kinds also fall as their 

 prey. 



The blue jay's vegetable food, with the exception of some 

 cultivated fruit and com in the fall, is largely neutral. The 

 severest criticism against the species is the destruction of other 

 birds and their eggs. Where we wish to attract the latter in 

 large numbers about our dooryards, in our parks, and in game 

 preserves, it will be well not to allow the jays to become too 

 abundant.! 



SOUTHEASTERN RAVEN: Corvus corax europhilm 



Oberholser.* 



State records. — The southeastern raven occurs sparingly 

 along the AUeghenies as far south as the northern parts of 

 €reorgia and Alabama. It is a dweller in wild, mountainous 

 districts, far from civilization, and in the United States is 

 rapidly growing scarce. In former times ravens probably 

 were plentiful over the greater part of the mountainous region 

 of northern Alabama, but within recent years their numbers 

 have been greatly reduced and they are now on the verge of 

 extinction. They are known to breed in only one locality — ^the 

 rocky bluffs along Sipsey Fork and its tributaries in south- 

 eastern Winston C!ounty and the adjacent parts of Walker and 

 Cullman Counties — ^but have been seen occasionally at a few 

 other places. R. R. Bottoms, of Logan, Cullman County, tells 

 me that ravens have been known to breed in the hills to the 



tBeal P E. L.. Farmera' Bulletin 630, rev. ed., p. 22, 1918. 

 •For OM of this name see The Auk, vol. 36, p. 269, 1919. 



