The Condor/Volume 9/Number 2/Slaughter of Blue Jays
SLAUGHTER OF BLUE JAYS
Editor The Condor:
A double-column display header in a Sacramento paper lately published announced, "Killing of Jays, the Destroyer of Quail Nests." This charge conjoined with the detailed reading matter, which was written with an intensity which curdled one's blood, foretold that "there will be an awful slaughter of blue jays during the early spring months." Subjoined was a subscription list wherein was donated various sums from $1.50 to $10 concluding with a very noble determination on the part of the individual who distinguished himself last year by killing the greatest number of jays "to strain every muscle and exercise every effort to uphold his reputation and win first prize this year."
Mr. Editor, rightly or wrongly the reading of this sent a creepy reflex thru my sympathetic, and I wondered if this slaughter was either intelligent or justifiable.
I remember as a boy in my native land the bad name the common magpie (Pica caudata) had as a destroyer of chickens, and a robber of nests. Indeed I even recollect seeing "sucked eggs," but never did I know of a pre-arranged slaughter, and yet the farmers of that region were careful of their own interests. But to return to the "Jays", I wrote up to the district where the campaign was being organized. I received some information which convinced me that in some cases at least, the execution was wrought by want of thought as well as want of heart. One of the subscribers honestly admits that "he had never given the matter of blue jays any personal attention, but was guided solely by the report of others." The heavy donation was from a dealer in sporting goods—a sportsman, and of course a close observer of nature! A third gentleman, who has the local reputation of being the best authority on birds said "that the jay is no good, he destroys eggs all the time," and that he "had actually seen a jay robbing a dove's nest, and flying away with the egg in his beak." The sportsman with the ambition for perennial premiership "is a farmer, an old gentleman" who had one thousand scalps to his credit for last season. One could, Mr. Editor, be a Christian and yet wish that the right hand of the "old gentleman" might at least soon lose its cunning, and not over strain its senility to win a "jay" reputation. My informant tells that the 'sport last season produced 6,000 counted scalps; many more unrecorded. The sport is stimulated by prizes—sportsman's sundries, guns, etc., etc., paid for out of the subscribed pool.
I was told "the first prize is a $50 gun and the farmer's boy" (who probably learns ornithology, by suggestion) is "after that gun," and "gives the jay no rest." Thus the story runs, and the moral which our friends advance is "that last season was the best for quail for a long time." I do not desire to sound one note of censure upon these determined men; but if the main object is to save quail eggs, one naturally asks what advantageth it the quail, whether he dies in embryo, or a few months later falls a "sacrifice" to his kindly protector, who had shielded him "in egg," and watched over him in infancy, so that he might "pot" him in early maturity!
I presume the species of jays which are killed are the ordinary Pacific Coast species, Aphelocoma californica and Cyanocitta stelleri, species which have been investigated by our esteemed member, Prof. F. E. L. Beal of the Biological Survey, and others, and the evidence obtained permits the conclusion, that while the blue jay is a marauder and guilty in degree, it is not so to the extent which those who know it only by "its bad name" accredit the unfortunate bird.
Prof. Beal tells us that in the stomachs of 141 California jays 35 per cent of the contents for the year consisted of animal matter and 65 per cent vegetable; traces of egg shells were found only in twenty-one stomachs; in another series of 300 stomachs only three contained egg shells and two, only, bones of birds."
I think it would be well within the scope of the C. O. C. if each member, and there are members in almost all parts of the State, would take the trouble of investigating scientifically the habits and foods of the blue jays as they were found in that especial district, and forwarding the results of such observations, to the secretary of the club. It is the duty of such a club as the C. O. C. to be able to state exactly the economic value or otherwise of any prominent species of bird. It does seem a questionable proceeding to slaughter in a single season over 8,000 individuals of a species, if there is no more valid reason for so doing than that the sportsman may form a nursery-preserve of some other species, whose economic value as an agricultural asset may actually be of a much lower value.
I have every confidence that when it can be shown that the blue jay, or any other black-listed species, has qualities which entitle it to an intelligent consideration, and which in equity mitigate its evil reputation, it will be found that the good sense of the sportsman, not forgetting the apt kindliness of the "farmer's boy" will find him a less ardent competitor for "the prize-gun" and still less ambitious to attain a doubtful heroism in the "awful slaughter" of a species "during the early spring months."
I submit this matter to the members of the C. O. C.—ask them to graciously aid in obtaining facts—and indeed in all cases of appeal to be an ever ready and competent court of equity in all matters pertaining to our local ornithology.
Respectfully yours,
Frederick W. D'Evelyn,
President, Cooper Ornithological Club.