WESTERN BIRDS Jay 



bage leaves, sprouting peas, tomatoes, potatoes, or any 

 vegetable. They have the cunning of their tribe for they 

 watch the gardener plant the potatoes and the next morn- 

 ing dig them up. It is no wonder that they are not 

 great favorites when they venture forth from their forest 

 homes. One fiendish habit this blue rascal has is tearing 

 open the side of the long pencil nest of the little Bush- 

 tits and extracting its contents, an act that even the most 

 forgiving person could not overlook. 



The nests of these birds are large bulky affairs held 

 together with mud and lined with fine rootlets. Ever- 

 green trees or thickets, from six to fifty feet from the 

 ground, are favorite nesting sites, although other trees or 

 bushes are used. 



Like the other members of the family, the birds make 

 devoted parents, the female doing all the brooding while 

 the male guards. 



The common call is a harsh, discordant note which 

 Dawson translates as Shaack, shaack, shaack, or, by a 

 stretch of the imagination, as jay, jay, jay. A mellow 

 klonk, klonk, reminds us that this bird is a cousin of the 

 Crow. "Other and minor notes there are for the lesser 

 and rarer emotions, and some of these are not unmusical. 

 Very rarely the birds attempt song, and succeed in pro- 

 ducing a medley which quite satisfies her that he could 

 if he would." (Dawson.) 



GENUS CYANOCITTA: BLUE- 

 FEONTED JAY. 



Blue-Fronted Jay: Cyanocitta stelleri frontalis. 



FAMILY— MAGPIES AND JAYS. 



This bird is found as a resident on both slopes of the 

 Sierra Nevada from Mt. Shasta south to the San Jacinto 



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