A DEFENSE OF SOME BIRDS. 
ABBIE C. STRONG. 
To the Editor of Birds and All Nature: 
IN THE October number of Birds 
and All Nature was an article 
containing a list of the enemies of 
song birds and ordering their ban- 
ishment, if one would enjoy the pres- 
ence of the little songsters. Included 
in the list were the blue jays. There 
was also an article entitled, "A new 
Champion for the English Sparrow." 
I always rejoice when someone comes 
forward in defense of the despised class, 
finding them not wholly faulty. The 
same hand created all, and surely each 
must be of some use. I feel like say- 
ing something in favor of the blue jay. I 
am sure that all will acknowledge that 
the jay has a handsome form and rare and 
beautiful plumage, which at least makes 
him"athingof beauty;"he may not be "a 
joy forever," but surely a delight to the 
eye. Formerly my home was in north- 
ern Iowa, living many years in one 
place in a town of about 6,000 inhabi- 
tants. Our lawn was spacious for a 
town, filled with shrubbery and trees, 
both evergreen and deciduous. We 
did not encourage cats, usually keeping 
dishes of water here and there for the 
accommodation of the birds, and other 
attractions which they seemed to ap- 
preciate, as numerous migratory birds 
came each season, taking up their abode 
with us, to their evident enjoyment and 
giving us much pleasure. The jays 
were always with us, were petted and 
as they became friendly and tame, 
naturally we were much attached to 
them. The limb of a tree growing very 
close to a back veranda had been 
sawed off and a board nailed on the 
top forming a table, where we daily 
laid crumbs and a number of jays as reg- 
ularly came after them. They were 
fond of meat and almost anything from 
the table. I found the jay to be a prov- 
ident bird; after satisfying his appetite 
he safely buried the remainder of his 
food. I often noticed them concealing 
acorns and other nuts in hollow places 
in the trees, and noticed also that they 
were left till a stormy day which pre- 
vented them from finding food else- 
where as usual. I saw one bury a bit of 
meat under leaves near a dead flower 
twig; there came a rather deep fall of 
snow that night, but the bird managed 
to find it the next day with little diffi- 
culty and flew off with a cry of delight. 
The jay nested on the grounds, but that 
did not seem to prevent other birds 
from coming in great numbers and va- 
riety and making their little homes 
there also. I recall one year which was 
but a repetition of most of the years. 
The jays had a nest in a crab apple tree, 
a cat bird nested in a vine close to the 
house, a robin came familiarly to one of 
the veranda pillars in front of the 
house and built her solid nest of mud 
and grass. A brown thrush took a 
dense spruce for her nesting-place. A 
blackbird, to my surprise, built a nest in 
a fir tree. A grosbeak built a nest on a 
swaying branch of a willow at the back 
of the lot, and a bluebird occupied a 
little house we had put in a walnut tree 
for her convenience. 
The orioles were always in evidence, 
usually making their appearance in 
early May when the fruit trees were in 
bloom; first seen busily looking the 
trees over for insects. Generally they 
selected an outreaching branch of a 
Cottonwood tree, often near where they 
could be watched from a veranda, 
building their graceful nests and caring 
for their little ones. The chattering 
little wrens never questioned our friend- 
liness, but always built loose little nests 
quite within our reach, either in a box 
we provided for them or over the door; 
at the same time others had their little 
homes in cozy places in the barn, or in 
the loose bark of an old tree. Each 
bird attended to its own affairs without 
perceptible molestation from others, as 
a rule. It was evident, however, that 
the jays were not tolerated in company 
with other birds to any great extent, 
and I fancy they had a rather bad rep- 
utation, for I noticed the birds took a 
defensive position often when a jay 
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