HOUSE AND GARDEN 
November, 
OH 
285 
Everyone knows the robin, whose hearty, chuckling notes and aldermanic plumpness fit the sweep of well-kept lawn 
so well. And yet these birds are shot and sold for food in parts of the South 
to watch it, you would see it repeating 
the same performance over and over 
again, only shifting its location occasion¬ 
ally, and perhaps being more active dur¬ 
ing the morning and evening hours. The 
pewee gathers its food largely from the 
air—no slipping through the grass for it. 
The flying forms of life are usually good 
enough, although now and then it will 
flutter before some plant in distress and 
relieve it of the caterpillars that cling to 
its leaves. 
It is a little difficult to discover just the 
kinds of insects the pewee eats, unless 
one is a trained naturalist and makes his 
observations with great care. If we turn, 
however, to the published records on 
economic ornithology we learn that it is 
known to consume such annoying crea¬ 
tures as beetles and flying ants, flies, 
gnats, mosquitoes and a long list of other 
insects, the names of which are seldom 
used outside the laboratory and the 
museum. 
Birds differ remarkably in their char¬ 
acteristics ; some, like the chipping spar¬ 
row and pewee, being so modest and re¬ 
tiring that their personalities seem al¬ 
most colorless when compared with the 
elusive, search-compelling cuckoo, or the 
big crested blue jay, whose calls and 
hilarious shoutings instantly draw atten¬ 
tion when one is near. There is just one 
time of the year when the jay controls its ever-burning desire to 
make a noise, and that is when there is a nest with eggs or young 
to be guarded from danger. Then he and his mate will advance 
through the grove with great stealth, usually pausing many times 
before going to the nest. But as soon as the young are strong 
upon the wing, the whole family appear to combine in an effort 
to acquaint everyone in the neighborhood with the fact that they 
are about. Sometimes several families unite, until as many as a 
dozen or twenty birds may be seen flying from tree to tree, voic¬ 
ing loudly the feelings of ecstasy with which their exuberant 
natures are so well endowed. 
The jay bears a rather unsavory reputation with some people 
who have discovered that it sometimes pilfers the nests of other 
birds, and there appears to be no doubt but what some individuals 
at least enjoy now and then the taste of an egg. Most of us, how¬ 
ever, have our faults, but in many instances these might be more 
easily overlooked did we have as many redeeming features as the 
naughty jay. It takes a great amount of food to keep its active 
body in condition, and it destroys many insects. In the autumn, 
when acorns are in prime condition, jays troop to the oak trees 
to feed. They tear the acorns off with their feet and a few blows 
with the bill serve to tear away the outer covering. When feed¬ 
ing, or while flying from place to place they drop many unin¬ 
jured acorns, either by accident or design, and these falling to the 
earth help decidedly in reforestation. 
Another visitor that comes to the garden in Montclair is the 
cuckoo—that long-tailed, skulking, mysterious bird so often 
heard and yet so seldom seen. In a neighboring fruit tree there 
dwells an army of tent-caterpillars. You can see their great 
white tent, two or three feet across and with many filmy parti¬ 
tions. It is pitched among the heavy branches, 
where there is little danger of the wind tearing it 
from its fastenings. Every morning long lines of 
these hairy intruders move out along the limbs, 
dispersing among the ter¬ 
minal twigs, proceed to 
(Continued on page 341) 
The chipping sparrow is one of our most domestic and valuable birds. This picture 
shows well the striped back and distinguishing brick-red crown 
Do not consider the young blue jay solely as an evd-doer in the making. 
reaches maturity he will be a valuable aid in reforestation 
When he 
