Atticus says this to Jem in chapter 10 when Jem gets a gun for the first time. Like many young boys, Jem just wants to shoot whatever he can. Atticus tells him he can shoot bluejays because they are considered a nuisance bird. Bluejays make a raucous sound, they steal other birds' nests and drive away other birds, etc. Mockingbirds, however, are not a nuisance bird. Mockingbirds, according to Atticus, simply sing their hearts out for our entertainment. The idea is that it is wrong to harm something - like a mockingbird - that does no harm and, in fact, actually does good. This is one of the central themes of the book. Boo Radley is like the mockingbird. Boo does no harm to anyone with his odd ways and by the end of the story, has actually done a great deal of good by saving Jem and Scout from Bob Ewell. The children, especially early in the story, delighted in playing games that mocked Boo Radley and made fun of him. After Boo saves the children and Sheriff Tate realizes that Jem didn't kill Bob Ewell, but that Boo Radley did, Tate refuses to arrest Boo. He says that it would be wrong to force him, with his shy ways, into the limelight that would ensue if people knew how heroic he'd been. Scout, hearing this, tells her dad, who is concerned about the ethics and legality of it, that bringing attention to Boo would be like shooting a mockingbird.
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