The California Jays 



of the cackle of a hen. A woman whose home was at the mouth of a small 

 ravine told the writer that one of her hens had a nest under a bush a short 

 distance up the ravine from the cottage. A jay found this out, and 

 every day when the hen went on her nest the jay would perch on a nearby 

 tree. As soon as the cackle of the hen was heard, both woman and bird 

 rushed to get the egg, but many times the jay reached the nest first and 

 secured the prize. A man living in the thickly settled outskirts of a 

 town said that jays came every morning and perched on some large 

 trees that overhung his barnyard, where the hens had their nests, and 

 that it was necessary for 

 some member of the 

 family to be on the look- 

 out and start at the first 

 sound of the hen's voice 

 or a jay would get the 



egg. 



"A still worse trait 

 of the jay was described 

 by a young man en- 

 gaged in raising poultry 

 on a ranch far up a 

 canyon near wooded 

 hills. When his white 

 leghorn chicks were 

 small the jays would 

 attack and kill them by 

 a few blows of the beak, 

 and then peck open the 

 skull and eat the brains. 

 In spite of all endeavors 

 to protect the chicks and 

 shoot the jays his losses 

 were serious." 



If this sort of thing 

 befalls a closely protect- 

 ed fowl, and one in which 

 man has a vital eco- 

 nomic stake, what hap- 

 pens, think you, to the 

 children of the wild 

 which have no protector? 

 My own belief, based on young California jay 



Photo by 



Finley and Bohlman 



52 



