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 it was 

 found that when the earlier cherries were ripening, blackbirds, 

 thrushes, orioles, grosbeaks, cedar birds, and linnets, as well as jays, 



