272 



CROWS, JAYS, MAGPIES, ETC. 



Fig. 345. Blue Jay. 



barred with black ; throat gray or purplish white ; middle of breast and 



sides grayish or brownish, belly 

 white ; white on outer tail feath- 

 er an inch or more deep. Young : 

 similar, but colors duller. Length : 

 11.00-12.50, wing 5.00-5.70, tail 

 5.05-5.70, exposed culmen .93- 

 1.06. 



Distribution. Breeds in east- 

 ern North America from about 

 latitude 52 south to Florida, and 

 from the Atlantic west to eastern 

 parts of Nebraska, Kansas, and 

 northern Texas. 



Nest. Usually in trees, often in orchards about houses, made largely 

 of dried twigs and rootlets. Eggs : 3 to 6, pale olive, greenish, or buffy, 

 sparsely spotted with brown. 



Food. Largely mast ; also corn, grain, beetles, grasshoppers, and cat- 

 erpillars. 



Observers in the western parts of Kansas, Nebraska, and Texas 

 may be fortunate enough to know the spirited eastern blue jay. In 

 voice and general habits he resembles his western relatives, though 

 perhaps more awake to the advantages to be had from human 

 neighborhood when snow covers the acorns and nuts on which he 

 feeds. 



478. Cyanocitta stelleri (Gmel.). STELLER JAY. 



Adults. Fore parts of body dull blackish, changing to pale blue on 

 lower back and belly ; wings and tail purplish .blue, barred with black. 

 Young : similar, but duller ; wing bars faint or wanting. Length : 12-13, 

 wing 5.55-0.20, tail 5.30-6.35, bill .9(5-1.18. 



Distribution. - - Resident in Transition and Canadian zones from Cook 

 Inlet south along coast to Monterey, California, and east to the Cascades. 



Nest. 25 to 50 feet from the ground, usually in firs, but sometimes 

 other trees, vines, and bushes, made of twigs, moss, and dry grass, ce- 

 mented with mud and lined with fine roots. Eggs : 3 to 5, pale bluish 

 green, spotted or blotched over whole surface with brown and lavender, 

 thickest about the larger end. 



Food. In winter largely pine seeds, thdUgh almost anything is eaten. 



There are many handsome blue-jays, but stelleri in its numerous 

 forms, with its blue body and high crest, is one of the lords of its 

 race, fittingly associated with the noblest forests of the west. 



The Steller jay (stelleri) may be found at Cloud Cap Inn on Mt. 

 Hood, feeding with the Clark crows and Oregon jays, and gives a 

 touch of color to the solemn redwood forests of California as well 

 as the dark, jungle-like woods of the Puget Sound country. The 

 blue-fronted (stelleri frontalis) enlivens the forests of the Sierra, 

 while the long-crested (stelleri diademata) lives in the southern 

 Rocky Mountains, wandering about in the mountain ranges of New 

 Mexico and the pine forests of Arizona. At Cloudcroft, Ne.v Mexico, 



