SOME COMMON BIRDS USEFUL TO THE FARMER. 
19 
Various kinds of cultivated fruits also are eaten, and local damage to suck 
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 1 (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 to carry on with considerable impunity 
that inglorious practice of nest rob¬ 
bing of which, in a measure, he 
has been rightfully accused. 
Examination of 530 stomachs 
collected 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 injurious, the remainder 
being neutral or beneficial. Of the 
injurious insects grasshoppers form 
the largest portion ; in August 
nearly a fifth of the food. Cater¬ 
pillars are conspicuous in July 
and August and at this time aver¬ 
age 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. Scarabseid 
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 percent), are taken 
most frequently. A few other invertebrates, as spiders, millepeds, mollusks, and 
crustaceans, also are eaten 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, respectively; and in 
August another had robbed a nest. As this trait of the jay appears to be most 
pronounced during its own breeding season, it is quite possible for many birds 
which have suffered from his 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 doubt¬ 
less 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 
Fig. 17.—Blue jay. Length, about ll£ 
inches. 
1 Cyanocitta cristata. 
