BIRDS OF KANSAS. 387 



of the plains. (Dr. Cooper met with a straggling pair at Ft. 

 Kearney, Neb. , and-Mr. G. S. Agersborg, a pair in southeastern 

 Dakota; but, like the Kansas visitant, they were accidental wan- 

 derers. They are seldom found below an altitude of 4,000 feet.) 



Sp. Chak. "Tail roimded or moderately graduated, the closed wings reach- 

 ing nearly to its tip. Fourth quill longest; second considerably shorter than 

 the sixth. General color bluish ash, changing on the nasal feathers, the fore- 

 head, sides of head (especially around the eye), and chin, to white. The wings, 

 including their inner surface, greenish black; the secondaries and tertials, except 

 the innermost, broadly tipped with white; tail white; the inner web of the fifth 

 feather and the whole of the sixth, with upper tail coverts, greenish black. The 

 axillars plumbeous black. Bill and feet black. Young similar in color, with- 

 out additional markings of any kind. The gonys, however, convex, and the bill 

 generally more like that of the Jays." 



Dimensions of a pair in "The Goss Ornithological Collec- 

 tion," shot March 5th, 1879, near Central City, Colorado: 



stretch of 

 Length. luing. JVing: Tail. Tarsus. Bill. 



Male 13.25 23.25 7.75 5.00 1.30 1.60 



Female 12.00 21.50 7.25 4.50 1.20 1.45 



Iris dark brown; bill, legs, feet and claws black. 



This bird has the actions and habits of several species. Like 

 the Jays, it is at times noisy, and in flocks, and when upon the 

 ground hops about in the same manner; it clings, like the 

 Woodpecker, to the side of a tree, while it hunts for and ex- 

 tracts from old excavations, interstices of the bark, etc., the 

 various forms of life found therein; and its flights are similar. 

 In clasping with its sharp claws the cones on the pines and other 

 coniferous trees, in order to pry with its bill for the seeds, it 

 often hangs with its head downward, swaying back and forth 

 with the ease and movements of the Titmouse. The birds are 

 very shy, and, at or near their nesting places, silent. 



In May, 1879, my brother found the birds breeding near Fort 

 Garland, Colorado. It was too late in the season for their eggs. 

 but in one nest he found young birds; he says the old bird sat 

 very close, only leaving when touched by his hand. The nest 

 was built near the end of a horizontal limb of a pine tree, and 

 about ten feet from the ground, in an open, conspicuous situa- 

 tion. It was bulky, and coarsely constructed of sticks, twigs, 

 strips of bark, rootlets, grass, moss, etc., and very deeply hoi- 



