In the story, Jim is the cowman; both Nat and Jim work for the farmer, Mr. Trigg. When Nat asks Jim whether he has had any trouble with the birds, Jim brushes Nat off.

Nat then begins to describe how an invading group of birds forced their way into his children's bedroom the night before, but Jim is still curiously nonchalant. The cowman answers that he's never heard of birds acting savagely before. However, he does think that sometimes, birds will be tame enough to come right up to the windows. Jim maintains that the best thing to do when that happens is to feed the birds some breadcrumbs.

Overall, Jim does not appear to be perturbed or the least bit distressed about the avian invasion that has been happening all across the country. Even after Nat argues that the birds fiercely attacked his young children, Jim appears to disbelieve Nat's story. He tells Nat that the birds were quite possibly just hungry or cold, and he again advised Nat to put out some breadcrumbs for the birds.