The Jasper news., 1908-08-13

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As has been said, bluejays are thick
| In the suburbs of Highland Park. An
| Englishman living in the place had
some gooseberry bushes which bore
berries Of extraordinary size and
! sweetness. The owner of the fruit de-
clared that the bluejays ate his treas
ures, and securing his shotgun he de.
stroyed several of the birds. The law
in Illinois protects the bluejay, but
there Is section of the statute which
gives the right to kill birds which are
preying on the crops. Friends Of the
bluejays said that the birds wouldn't
eat gooseberries, and there was a
prosecution started against the Eng.
lishman for killing them. The case
was decided finally in his favor, and
while scientists and bird lovers may
hold otherwise the bluejay now ap.
pears in a precedent case" as being
a gooseberry gourmand.
The bluejay Is perhaps the noisiest
creature known to ornithology, though
If danger is threatened he can main
tain graveyard silence. was
watching pair of bluejays who were
building nest In a stunted pine tree.
The two birds left the home site and
disappeared behind close board
fence. In moment l heard racket.
Every note known to the jays jargon
came rapidly from behind the fence.
The noise continued for several min
utes, and then, going to point to the
left of Its source, l peeped over the
| fence. The two birds were on an ash
pile in the alley, and between them
lay an extremely dirty paper collar.
There was little question in my mind
but that they were disputing over the
advisability of using the collar for
nesting material. They scolded back
and forth for some time, but Nine.
Jay finally ended the matter by seiz.
ing the collar and taking 1t to the
nest, where. after much difficulty. one
end of it was woven into the structure,
while the other end was left to flap
with each passing breeze. making the
home in the pine tree a conspicuous
object to every passer.
The Jay has pertinacity that in
some cases might be commendable.
After the pine tree nest was COM
pleted and the eggs were laid the
mother bird began sitting. There
should have been young in the nest
at the end Of two weeks, but no young
came. The bird sat steadily, with the
exception of the time spent in seeking
food, for 80 days before she gave up
hope of offspring. After they had de-
serted the nest / examined the eggs
Each had little dried-up kernel in
side that rolled about like a pea.
Albino birds are not of great rarity
Perhaps 1t were better to say that
birds partly albino are not rare. A
pure white crow wsc recently in the
possession of Amman Keeper De Vry
Of the Lincoln Park zoo, Chicago
Ruthven Deane, fellow of the Amer
lean Ornithologists union, has q
mounted crow specimen that Is as
white as the petal of syringa bios
som.
There came under my personal OBJ
| servation crow which had a large
white patch in the center of its 9th,
erwise black back. l saw this bird
on different occasions during two
years. Save once 1t was always alone
and at the time marking the excep.
ton its company was flock of its fel.
lows, who were chasing 1t to drive II
away from the neighborhood of their
retreat. 1t Is impossible to determine
absolutely what the reason for the
crows persecution was, but Of course
everything points to the circumstance
of its white back as the real cause.
The bobolink (dolichonyx oryzivor.
us) has been painted part white by
nature, but I once found bobolink
that was pure white. barring two
black streaks on his breast. 1t has
been supposed that freak" birds have
some difficulty in procuring mates
but this white bobolink had wife
and an interesting family of young
1t may have been nothing but acc!
dent, but the mated pair built their
nest in meadow where there were
no other bobolinks, although the
fields directly across the road were
filled with their brothers and sisters
| It certainly looked like bobolink ostra