BREWSTER : BIRDS OF THE CAPE REGION, LOWER CALIFORNIA. 125 



its anterior corner backwards about half an inch ; under parts grayish Avhite, 

 bordered on the sides of the throat and breast with brownish drab, which also 

 forms a narrow and rather obscure band across the breast ; wings and tail as in 

 the adult, but with the greater covert tipped, and some of the middle and lesser 

 coverts tinged, with drab. Bill, tarsi, and feet black. 



Autumnal plumage: — This differs only slightly, if at all, from the nuptial 

 plumage. Indeed, the birds which I take to be adult are practically insepar- 

 able from unworn spring specimens. Others, probably young, have the blue 

 paler, the brown of the scapulars and back duller or more ashy. 



This, the only Jay known to inhabit the Cape Region, is very common and 

 generally distributed there, being found almost everywhere from the sea-coast 

 to the tops of the highest mountains. About La Paz it nests in March, but the 

 birds seen by Mr. Frazar on the Sierra de la Laguna in May and early June were 

 in flocks and showed no signs of having bred that season or of being about to 

 breed. They probably leave the mountains before the beginning of winter 

 and seek more sheltered haunts in the valleys and foothills at lower eleva- 

 tions, for Mr. Frazar did not find a single individual on the Sierra de la Laguna 

 during his second visit, in the latter part of November, 1887. 



Mr. Bryant found a nest of this Jay " a few miles southward from San 

 Ignacio on April 12, 1889. The nest was built about three metres high in a 

 green acacia near the trail. The female was sitting, and did not fl^^ until 

 preparations for climbing the tree had commenced. The nest was in quite an 

 exposed situation amongst scant twigs on a horizontal branch. It is composed 

 of small loosely laid dry twigs, and a shallow receptacle lined with fibre and 

 horsehair. 



" The eggs, three in number (set No. 899, coll. of W. E. B.), contained small 

 embryos. They are more finely spotted than some similar jay's eggs, with 

 shell spots of pale lilac-gray and surface spots of pale olive-green. The ground 

 color is dull, pale glaucous green. They measure 27.5 X 20.5 ; 27.5 X 21 ; 

 27 X 21 millimetres." 



Xantus's Jay is confined to Lower California. It was first seen by Mi 

 Bryant " among the mangroves of Magdalena Island, and along the mangrove- 

 bordered estero to San Jorge, and northward as far as lat. 28°." On San Pedro 

 Martir mountain it is replaced by obscura, a race doubtfully distinct from cali- 

 fornica. The latter bird is said to occur still further to the northward on the 

 Peninsula, "about Ensenada and to the eastward." ^ 



Corvus corax sinuatus (Wagl.). 

 American Raven.^ 



Corviis corax carnivonis (not Corvus carnivorus Bartkam) Belding, Proc. U. S. Nat. 

 Mus., V. 1883, 541 (Cape Region) ; VI. 1883, 348 (Victoria Mts.). 



1 Bryant, Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., 2d ser., II. 1889, 293. 



