286 Birds of Colorado 



Habits. — Smith took two sets of eggs on June 4th, 

 1905, at Dry Willow Creek : one nest was in a dead, black 

 willow overhung with grape vines, and contained five 

 slightly incubated eggs ; the other about twenty- five 

 feet up in a cotton-wood tree held four eggs, in which 

 incubation had progressed about one fourth. 



Long-crested Jay. Cyanocitta stelleri diademata. 



A.O.U. Checklist no 478b — Colorado Records — Baird 58, p. 582 

 {Cyanura macrolopha) ; Allen 72, pp. 150, 163; Aiken 72, p. 205 

 Trippe 74, p. 218 ; Henshaw 75, p. 335 ; Scott 79, p. 94 ; Drew 81 

 p. 139 ; 85, p. 16 ; Allen & Brewster 83, p. 193 ; Beckham 85, p. 142 

 87, p. 124 ; Morrison 86, p. 153 ; 88, p. 107 ; 89, p. 147 ; Kellogg 90 

 p. 88 ; Lowe 94, p. 268 ; Bendire 92, p. 367 ; McGregor 97, p. 38 

 Cooke 97, pp. 90, 210 ; Keyser 02, p. 149 ; Henderson 03, p. 235 ; 09 

 p. 233 ; Gilman 07, p. 155 ; Rockwell 08, p. 168 ; Warren 08, p. 22 

 09, p. 15. 



Description. — Adult — Crown, including the long crest-feathers and 

 sides of the head black ; forehead with a very pale blue longitudinal 

 streak on either side ; superciliary patch quite white and very con- 

 spicuous ; back bluish-grey, brightening on the rump ; wings and tail 

 bright blue, the primary-coverts, secondaries and tail-feathers more 

 strongly marked with narrow, black cross-bands ; below the throat 

 and chest are black (the chin streaked with white), becoming dull blue 

 posteriorly on the abdomen and under tail-coverts ; iris brown, bill 

 and legs black. Length 11-5; wing 5-90; tail 5-60; culmen 1-20; 

 tarsus 1 -70. The female is very similar but slightly smaller — wing 5 -60. 

 A young bird has the back and the whole of the under-parts dusky grey, 

 darker than the back of the adult ; the black of the crest is less marked, 

 and the streaks and superciliary stripe are hardly to be detected. 



Distribution. — The Rocky Moimtain region from Utah and Colorado 

 southwards to Zacatecas State in central Mexico, merging in Wyoming 

 with Cyanocitta stelleri annectens. 



In Colorado the Long-crested Jay is a common resident throughout 

 the year in the foothills and mountain districts, from Estes Park 

 (Kellogg) to Fort Garland (Henshaw), and from Grand and Routt cos. 

 (Warren) and Mesa co. (Rockwell) to La Plata co. (Gilman) ; it does 

 not occur in the open eastern plains as a rule, though it has been observed 

 at the Old Fort Lyon in Bent co. in December by Trippe, and also near 

 Peyton on the Arkansas Divide, about twenty miles from the moun- 

 tains by Aiken. 



