BIRDS OF ISrORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 281 



NUCIFRAGA COLUMBIANA (Wilson). 

 CLARKE'S NTTTCRACKER. 



Adults {sexes alike) in lointer. — Nasal tufts, anterior portion of fore- 

 head, lores, eyelids, anterior portion of malar region, and chin, white, 

 usually more or less soiled or tinged with dirty yellowish; rest of 

 head, neck, back, scapulars, and under parts (except chin and under 

 tail coverts), plain smoke gray or drab-gray, the head somewhat paler 

 than other portions; rump darker gray than back, deepening into 

 grayish black on upper tail-coverts; under tail-coverts pure white; 

 wings and two middle rectrices black, glossed with purplish blue or 

 violet, especially on wing-coverts and secondaries, the latter (but not 

 the tertials) very broadly tipped with white; four outermost pairs of 

 rectrices white, the fifth pair with outer wel) mostly white and inner 

 web mostly black; bill, legs, and feet black; iris brown, 



Adidts in summer.— SmiW^iV to winter adults but the gray paler and 

 browner (light brownish drab-gra}^). 



Young. — Similar to summer adults, but gray rather paler (that of 

 the head fading gradually into the white of anterior portions), lesser 

 wing-coverts dusky grayish brown, middle, greater, and primary 

 coverts indistinctlv tipped with the same,.and black of wings and tail 

 duller. 



Adidt wia/.?.— Length (skins), 292.5-315 (302.5); wing, 190.5-108.5 

 (194.5); tail, 114-118.5 (116.5); exposed culmen, 37.5-45.5 (42); depth 

 of ))ill at tip of nasal tufts, 11.5-12.5 (12); tarsus, 35-38 (36.5); middle 

 toe, 23-25 (23. 5). « 



J.dult female.— luQwgih. (skins), 279.5-29T.5 (289); wing, 187.5-192.5 

 (189.5); tail, 111-118.5 (114); exposed culmen, 37-39.5 (38); depth of 

 bill at end of nasal tufts, 10.5-11.5 (11); tarsus. 32.5-36 (35); middle 

 toe, 20.5-25 (22.5.)" 



Coniferous forests of western North America, from high mountains 

 of New Mexico, Arizona (San Francisco and White Mountains), and 

 northern Lower California (San Pedro Martir Mountains) to north- 

 western Alaska (Kowak Kiver, Bristol Bay, etc.). (Western forest 

 districts of Boreal Province and Boreal "islands" within arid division 

 of Transition and U])per Austral life-zones.) Casual in southeastern 

 South Dakota, Nebraska, western Kansas (Finney and ^Nlarsliall 

 counties), western Missouri (Kansas City), and Arkansas (Crittenden 

 County). 



Comnis columh'tani(sWihsoi<, Am. Orn., iii, 1811, 29, pi. 20, fig. :'> (Ci)luinl)ia K. ). — 

 Box.vp.\RTE, Journ. Ac. Nat. Sci. Pliila., iii, 1824, 359; Ann. T.yr. N. Y., iii, 

 1828, 57.— Nrrr.vLL, Man. Orn. U. S. an<l Can., i, 1832, 218. 



Nucifratja columhiana Audubon, Orn. Biog., iv, 1838, 459, pi. 3()2; Synop.^is, 1S39, 

 156; Birds Am., oct. ed., iv, 1842, 127, pi. 235.— Bonaparte, Geog. and 



« Six specimens. 



