Some Common Birds Useful to the Farmer 19 
Various kinds of cultivated fruits are also eaten, and local damage to such 
crops as apples, melons, peas, beans, peanuts, and almonds is occasionally re¬ 
ported. In long, rigorous winters, the crow, like other birds, resorts to the 
fruit of numerous wild plants, as dogwood, sour gum, hackberry, smilax, and the 
several species of sumac and poison ivy. 
Damage to the eggs of poultry may be reduced to a minimum by careful 
housing of laying hens, and the farmer can protect his sprouting grain to a 
large extent by the use of tar-coated seed. It will be well also to keep the 
crow within reasonable numbers on game preserves and public parks where it 
is desired to encourage the nesting of smaller birds. While legal protection is 
not needed for so wary an individual as the crow, it seems well, where local 
conditions have not aggravated some particular shortcomings of the bird, to 
allow it to continue the good services rendered to man in the destruction of 
noxious insects. 
BLUE JAY 
The blue jay 40 (fig. 17) is a conspicuous member of our bird population east 
of the Plains, especially in autumn when his brilliant plumage contrasts vividly 
with the brown foliage. Even in winter he stays with us, though at this time 
he is less common along our northern border. In spring and summer, while by 
no means uncommon, the blue jay is not so often noticed, as the retiring disposi¬ 
tion which he assumes during the breeding season assists in protecting him 
from enemies. This also allows him 
that inglorious practice of nest rob¬ 
bing of which, in a measure, he has 
been rightfully accused. 
Examination of 530 stomachs col¬ 
lected at all times of the year in 30 
of our Eastern States and Canada 
shows that insects comprise about 
22 per cent of the yearly sustenance. 
About three-fourths of these are in¬ 
jurious, the remainder being neutral 
or beneficial. Of the injurious in¬ 
sects, grasshoppers form the largest 
portion; in August nearly a fifth of 
the food. Caterpillars are conspicu¬ 
ous in July and August and at this 
time average about a tenth of the 
stomach contents. Both laboratory 
investigations and field observations have established the fact that in winter the 
eggs of the tent caterpillar and the hibernating larvae of the brown-tail moth in 
New England are eagerly sought. Scarabaeid beetles form about 4 per cent of 
the yearly food, and click beetles and wire-worms about 1 per cent. Of the 
beneficial forms, ground beetles (3 per cent) and hymenopterous insects, part 
of which are parasitic (2.5 per cent), are taken most frequently. A few other 
invertebrates, as spiders, millepeds, mollusks, and crustaceans, also are eateu 
throughout the year. 
In the consideration of the vertebrate food of the blue jay we are confronted 
with the problem of the destruction of wild birds and their eggs. Special 
search was made for every possible trace of such material in the stomachs, 
and in 6 of the 530 were found the remains of wild birds or their eggs. In 
February two jays had killed a small bird apiece; in May one had robbed a 
nest of eggs; in June two had taken a small bird and a clutch of eggs, respec¬ 
tively; and in August another had robbed a nest. As this trait of the jay ap¬ 
pears to be most pronounced during its own breeding season, it is quite possible 
for many birds which have suffered from its boldness early in the season to raise 
another brood unmolested. Thirty-nine of the 530 jays examined had fed 
on hen’s eggs. Much of this food, however, was picked up about rubbish heaps, 
to which the jay, like other members of the crow family, .is partial. While 
the result of stomach analysis would appear to belittle this fault of the blue 
jay, it is doubtless quite characteristic of the bird under favorable conditions. 
Complaint that the jay is the source of considerable damage to corn in the 
fall has been verified to a certain degree by stomach examination. This grain 
to carry on with considerable impunity 
Fig. 17.—Blue jay. Length, about 11 h 
inches. 
40 Cyanocitta crista ta. 
