The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-03-05
THE BLUE JAY AT THE BAR

A few days ago I received a letter 1 from a lady whose tender heart is filled
 with indignation because the thought
 less boys in her neighborhood have de-
 clarded war on the blue Jays. The boys, 1 tention of wrongdoing; on the other
 hand they seem to be under the inl-
 pression that they are conferring a
 benefit on bird and man, by ridding the community of a confirmed devourer of
 eggs and nestIings. Before denying the righteousness of the warfare, it seems fair to ask from what source comes the information concerning the blue jays villainy. Have these boys actually seen
 great numbers of bird homes destroyed that the jays might stay their hunger? If they have, then I beg them to let no
 word os mine interrupt their useful work; let them load their guns to the muzzle and give no quarter. Otherwise perhaps it may be well for them to pause and consider whether they are really waging righteous war or whether they are merely killing helpless creatures which they have condemned 1 to death on hearsay evidence. There | is a law in all civilized countries to the effect that when a citizen is charged with an offence, he is entitled to fair trial, and that he may not be punished unless he is actually proven guilty be- yond reasonable doubt. A few years ago the blue jay was brought to the bar of justice. charged, with the destruc- tion of eggs and nestlingg. He was tried inlpartially by competent judges, who heard and weighed the evidence for and against as carefully as though a mans life had been at stake and the
 expenses of the trial were paid by the United States Government. The prin- cioal witnesses in the case were few men who testified that they had seen the blue jay eating eggs and fledglings, and two hundred and ninety-two blue jays. all of whom gave their lives that
 they might be present at the trial, and Of whom two hundred and eight-seven testified positively to the falseness of
 the charge. The evidence for the de-
 fendant was so overwhelming that the jury returned a verdict of mot guilty
 without leaving the court room. This is of course, just one way of telling the story, which is nevertheless a true one.
 The United States government in 1896 caused the food of the blue jay to be
 made the subject of rigid investiga-
 tion. An examination was made of two
 hundred and ninety-two Stomachs of
 blue jays collected in every month of
 the year, from twerty-two States, the
 District of Columbia and Canada. In only five of all these stomachs were
 there found the remains of birds or of
 the shells of small birds eggs. Of the three egg shells found in three of the stomachs one and probably two
 were empty shells, eaten after the young had been matched. It might be claimed that the jays often eat the contents of eggs without swallowing the shells but by giving eggs to captive jays it has been shown that the birds are even more anxious for the shells than for the contents.
 A great many other facts came out at this investigation. It was shown that more than three-fourths of the blue jays food consists of vegetable matter, and that of the animal food the greater part was made lp of insects, though there was a small percentage of spiders, nyrapods, snails, fish, sala- manders, tree frogs, mice and birds. Most of the insects food consisted of beetles, grasshoppers and caterpillars, and besides these there were a few bugs, wasps and flies. It was found that blue jays eat insects every month of the year, and the proportion of in sect food varies from one per cent. In January to over sixty-six per cent. in August, the average for the year being nearly twenty-three per cent. Destruc- tive grasshopDers, crickets and locusts begin to form an important item in the blue jays bill-of-fare as early as July, amount to nearly twenty per cent, of his food during August, and he contin- ues to eat them in considerable num- bers until December. Amongst the eaterpillars to which, the bird gives his attention may be mentioned those of the brown-tail and gypsy moths which works such havoc in the trees in cer- tain parts of the country.
 Of course those who are in favor of the destruction of the blue jay will re- turn to the attack and tell us that since it is admitted that over three sourths of the birds food consists of