BIRDS OF KANSAS. 389 



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



These noisy, characteristic birds are quite common within the 

 central portion of their range. They are gregarious, and very 

 social in their habits, and are usually to be found flying about in 

 flocks, among the scattering cedars and pinons of the open, hilly 

 lands, making their presence known upon all occasions, except 

 -about their nesting places, by keeping up their almost continu- 

 ous, loud, harsh, querulous notes; hurriedly alighting, and pass- 

 ing each other, in their search for food, each anxious to be in 

 the lead, in order to secure the choicest nuts and seeds upon the 

 ground, as well as in the trees. The pinon is the favorite, and 

 in extracting the nuts from cones they often hang feet upper- 

 most, and swing about like the Crossbills. During the breed- 

 ing season, they prove themselves quite expert and busy insect 

 •catchers, darting from a tree top and returning after the cap- 

 ture much like the true Flycatcher. 



I have never found the birds very shy, but on account of their 

 restless flights they are not easy to capture by following the trail. 

 When going a distance, their flights are swift and compact, but 

 rather straggling in their search for food. 



The following interesting description of the? ■ nesting habits, 

 by my brother, is taken from the bulletin of he Nuttall Orni- 

 thological Club: 



"In May, 1879, I took nine sets of the eggs of the Pinon 

 Jay, in Colorado. Their nests were found all within from five 

 to nine miles east and southeast of Fort Garland. This region 

 lies along the western base of the Sangre de Christo Mountains, 

 is broken by hills and spurs from the main range, and has an 

 elevation of about 9,000 feet. The nests were all in high, 

 open situations, two of them well up the steep mountain sides. 

 and none in valleys or thick timber. All were in small piiion 

 pines, from five to ten feet up, out some distance from the body 

 of the tree, and not particularly well concealed. They are large, 

 coarse and deeply-hollowed structures, much alike, being made 

 mostly of grayish shreds of some fibrous plant or bark, which 

 breaks up into a mass of hair-like fibers, these forming the lining, 

 while some weeds and grass are worked into the general fabric. 



