CORVID^ — THE CROWS. 281 



and show great sagacity in their movements to avoid its peril. On the 

 Columbia they lay in May, and in California about a month earlier. 



Cyanura stelleri, var. macrolopha, Baikd. 



LONG-CEESTED JAY. 



Cyanocitta macrolopha, Baird, Pr. A. N. Sc. Phila. Vll, .June, 18.54, IIS (Albuquerque). 

 i Garrulus stdlcri, Swainsox, F. Bor.-Am. II, 1831, 294, pi. liv (head-waters of Co- 

 lumbia ; figure of a bird intermediate between C. stdlcri and macrolopha). Cyanura 

 macrolopha, Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 582. —Elliot, Illust Am. B, I, xvii. — 

 Cooper, Orn. Cal. I, 1870, 300. 



Sp. Gear. Crest nearly twice the length of the bill. Tail moderately graduated ; the 

 lateral feathers about .GO of an inch shorter than the middle. Fourth and fifth quills 

 longest ; second shorter than the secondaries. Head all round, throat, and forepart of 

 the breast, black, the crest with a gloss of blue ; rest of back dark ashy-brown with a 

 gloss of greenish. Under parts, rump, tail-coverts, and outer surfaces of primaries, 

 greenish-blue ; greater coverts, secondaries, and tertials, and upper surface of tail-feathers 

 briglit blue, banded with black ; forehead streaked with opaque white, passing behind 

 into pale blue; a white patch over the eye. Chin grayish. Length, I2..50 ; wing, 5.85 ; 

 tail, 5.85; tarsus, 1.70 (8,.351). 



Hab. Central line of Rocky Mountains from northern border of the United States to 

 table-lands of Mexico ; Fort Whipple, Arizona. 



Young birds have the bright blue of body and black of head replaced by 

 a duU slate ; the head unvaried. 



An apparent link between this variety and C. stelleri is represented in 

 the Smithsonian collection by three specimens from the region towards 

 the head- waters of the Columbia, where the respective areas of distribution 

 of the two overlap. In this the anterior parts of the body are nearly as 

 black as in stelleri (much darker than mci,crolopha), with the short crest; but 

 the forehead (e.xcept in one specimen) is streaked with blue, aud there is a 

 white patch over the eye. As in stelleri, there are no black bars on tlie 

 greater wing-coverts. As this is an abundant form, whether permanent race 

 or hybrid, it may be called var. anneetens. 



Habits. The Long-crested Jay appears to occur throughout the central 

 range of the Eocky Mountains from British Columbia to Mexico, where it 

 is replaced by a closely allied species or race, the Cyanura coronata of Swain- 

 son. 



Mr. Ridgway met with this Jay only among the Wahsatch and the 

 Uintah Mountains. They appeared to be rather common in those regions, 

 though far from being abundant. In their manners and in their notes 

 they are described as having been almost an exact counterpart of the 

 Sierra Nevada form. Their notes, however, are said to be not so loud nor 

 so coarse as those of the more western species. A nest, found by Mr. Eidg- 

 way, June 25, 1869, in Parley's Park, Wahsatch Mountains, was in a small 



VOL. II. 36 



