64 
Forest and Strea 
COMPANIONS OF CAMP AND TRAII 
THE BLUE JAY AND THE WOOD MOUSE ARE JUST 
AS ACTIVE IN WINTER AS THEY ARE IN SUMMER 
By LEOREN D. INGALLS 
■iiiiiii 
One of the motives uppermost in 
the minds of the men who founded 
Forest and Stream fifty years ago 
was that the magazine should culti¬ 
vate a refined taste for natural ob¬ 
jects and this department has come 
down through the years steadfastly 
holding to that precedent. 
■in 
There! He has come upon that nest of 
the white-throated sparrow that you 
found the other day. The old bird is off 
just now and he is quick to take ad¬ 
vantage. The eggs are not too old for 
his taste, and one after another the 
shells are cracked and the contents 
sucked out. If the little mother was to 
come back she would raise a great fuss, 
but he would probably add insult to in¬ 
jury by proceeding to torment her. Any 
the jays, and the Canada jay in pa 
ticular has earned the curses of ti 
sportsman by his habit of pecking in 
the game that has fallen to the huntei 
gun. I called them freebooters and tl 
name fits. Only a pirate would w; 
until another had secured a prize by h 
own industry, and then by superior for' 
compel the weaker one to give up h 
rightful winnings—but that is one of tl 
commonest tricks played by the jays c 
the smaller birds, the helpless victims 
their aggressiveness. 
They are sly fellows, though, and 
the neighborhood of their own hom 
are very quiet and unassuming, e\ 
dently fearing that to be over-noi 
would attract too much attention fro 
the crows, who, as they well kno 
would find jay eggs quite palatabi 
Few are lucky enough to hear what tl 
blue jay says to his mate to win her, f 
his coat being no better than hers, I 
must show more than vain display 
prove his worth. So he turns vocali 
and serenades h 
X. 
with one of tl 
most charming ai 
(to man) lea: 
known of all tl 
love-songs of bir 
dom. Both ja 
build compai 
nests of twigs w< 
up in tree crotcht 
the Canada bi: 
usually building 
evergreens, a n 
here they re. 
their families, s( 
dom being notia 
until the youi 
ones discover th 
they, too, ha' 
voices as stride 
as those of the 
The trail of a wood mouse in the snow 
other eggs would taste just as good, for 
he is not at all particular. If they are 
hatched he is saved the trouble of break¬ 
ing the shell—and young nestlings are 
very tender anyway. However, he soon 
gets tired of this diet and goes off to 
vary it with seeds and insects. Any 
food that is at all edible is used by both 
parents. 
With the a 
proach of autun 
the jays becor 
what New En 
land housewiv 
would call “good providers.” They a 
busy then most of the time picking 1 
acorns and other nuts, stowing the 
away in safe places, often wedging the 
into cracks in the bark and into crotch 
of the limbs. They are constantly < 
the watch to find out where their on 
(Continued on page 84) 
F INE feathers do not make fine 
birds. How often we hear that 
expression, and how often it re¬ 
calls to us that handsome free¬ 
booter of the woods, the blue jay. At 
the same time no one can truthfully say 
that dull feathers make fine birds, for 
his Northern cousin, the Canada jay or 
whiskyjack, has the same assortment of 
bad habits that make the blue jay so 
cordially detested by the small song¬ 
birds. Both are familiar to lovers of 
the open in their ranges, but the blue- 
coated rascal is the bird of the trail, 
whereas the gray-clad chap is a frequent 
visitor to the camp. 
No matter what you are doing in the 
woods or how quiet you are, it is im¬ 
possible to conceal yourself entirely 
from the prying eyes of the jay. 
Though just a minute before you were 
apprised of his nearness by the metallic 
“Come quick,” suddenly you are startled 
by the loud “Say—SA-A-AY!” that 
splits the air just overhead, followed by 
an answering 
chorus as all the 
rest come flocking 
up to see what the 
trouble is. They 
remind me of 
nothing quite so 
much as a Broad¬ 
way crowd. The 
instant that any¬ 
thing unusual hap¬ 
pens, there is a 
rush to the spot, a 
craning of necks, 
a loud discussion 
of the whole af¬ 
fair. Everybody 
tells his neighbor 
just what he 
thinks about it and 
no one is paying 
the slightest atten¬ 
tion to what any¬ 
one else is saying. 
Then one by one 
they slip quietly 
away to go on 
with their regular business. 
Do you know what that regular busi¬ 
ness is? Let us borrow some of the 
jay’s inquisitiveness. There he is, crest 
lowered, wings drooping, sneaking si¬ 
lently through the underbrush. Quite 
different from the bold-looking fellow of 
this morning. What can he be doing? 
