Does sound rather arbitrary. I've heard stories about what some people ate during the depression and bluejays and robins were on that list.
Reminds me of one of my family's stories. My Dad was given a .22 rifle when he was a kid...probably circa 1940. They all lived in the country and a kid carrying around a .22 was no big deal. Anyway Dad went on a bit of a killing spree with his new rifle, shooting up a bunch of robins. My Granddaddy asked him "what are you going to do with all those robins"? Dad says "I don't know". Grandaddy replies "I do. You are going to clean them, your Mama's going to cook them and you are going to eat them!" Grandma was not to happy about all this so I was told, but back in those days what the man said went....I guess.
I asked Dad how the robins were and he said "not bad but not as good as dove".
