16 
Psyche 
[Vol. 87 
Results and Discussion 
The results are divided into two groups. The first grouping is the 
response of inexperienced birds upon their first exposure to the 
choice between a non-web spider, a spider in a partial web, and a 
spider in a full web. The second group consists of all the succeeding 
response sequences of the birds which were used more than once. 
Table 1 shows the first capture exhibited by 11 birds on their first 
exposure to the experimental situation. These birds had had no 
previous experience with spiders in webs, but had had experience 
with spiders out of webs (in feeding trays). Although the data are too 
few to detect minor preferences, the first choice of the birds appears 
to have been random, suggesting that the birds had no innate 
aversion to spider webs and/or stabilimenta. 
Table 1. First Choice Among Three Web Conditions Exhibited by 11 Inexperi¬ 
enced Blue Jays. “N” Stands for the Non-web Spider, “P” the Partial-web Spider, and 
“F” the Full-web Spider. 
Possible 
Number of 
Choices 
Times Observed 
N 
5 
P 
3 
F 
3 
Although the first choice appears random, some degree of innate 
preference among the three choices cannot be ruled out on the basis 
of these data. It has been shown that slight differences in the stimulus 
pattern presented by Lepidoptera prey can alter or prevent the initial 
attack response of blue jays (Coppinger, 1968), and during my 
experiments the blue jays were confronted with a choice among three 
stimulus patterns which differed with respect to visual complexity. 
Thus, the discrimination shown by the blue jays in response to the 
spiders in their webs could have been affected by the differences in 
visual stimulus patterns among the choices. Accordingly, eight birds 
were given similar choices, using, however, web drawings and 
crickets as prey. In these experiments the visual stimulus pattern was 
essentially the same as in the experiment outlined above, but the 
tactile element of the web was missing. 
The results of the experiment with web drawings and crickets are 
summarized in Table 2. A Chi-square analysis indicates that the 
