>By the way, have you noticed that the jays always cache in groups of
>three seeds to a hole?

I also noticed this interesting behavior about crows recently, when I felt
quite generous one day and fed them pistachios in the shell. They flew
off a short distance with them, and stashed a group of three nuts in a
little cache nest, and then covered them with a tuft of grass. The cache
was still there a couple of days later, and I don't know if the crows
eventually reclaimed them or not.

They don't seem to exhibit this same behavior with peanuts. Maybe I'll
try another experiment with another exotic nut!

Laura Plaut

plaut at ms.washington.edu