412 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



did not disturb the nest in the least, a visit two weeks later found it 

 covered with snow and apparently deserted. On April loth, among 

 ten jays, secured about twenty miles down the Kowak from our 

 winter camp, was one female, which contained in the oviduct, a 

 full-sized though unshelled, egg. Not until May 13th, however, did 

 I finally find an occupied jay's nest, and its discovery then was by 

 mere accident. It was twelve feet up in a small spruce amongst 

 a clump of larger ones on a low ridge. There were no "tell-tale 

 sticks and twigs on the snow beneath," as Nelson notes, and in 

 fact nothing to indicate its location. The nest rested on several 

 horizontal or slightly drooping branches against the south side of 

 the main trunk. The foliage around it was moderately dense, so 

 that it could be seen from the ground, though only as an indistinct 

 dark spot. The bird was sitting on her nest when I discovered it. 

 Her head and tail appeared conspicuously over the edge of the 

 nest, and she remained on until I had climbed up within an arm's 

 length of her. She then left the nest and silently flew to a near-by 

 tree where she was joined by her mate. They both remained in 

 the vicinity, but ostensibly paid little attention to me. They 

 followed each other about playfully, uttering low conversational 

 notes. The male would try to approach the female, vibrating his 

 wings and striking various coquettish attitudes, but the latter would 

 quickly turn upon him, as if to repel his advances at such a serious 

 time. Then both birds would pause for a moment within six inches 

 of each other, with their beaks wide open, and mayhap a snap or 

 two. The nest proper was built on a loose foundation of slender 

 spruce twigs. The walls and bottom consisted of a closely felted 

 mass of black hair-like lichen, many short bits of spruce twigs, 

 feathers of ptarmigan, and hawk owls, strips of a fibrous bark and a 

 few grasses. The interior is lined with the softest and finest grained 

 material. The whole fabric is of such a quality as to accomplish 

 the greatest conservation of warmth, which certainly must be 

 necessary where incubation is carried on in below zero weather. 

 (Joseph Grinnell.) 



484e. Labrador Jay. 



Perisoreus canadensis nigricapillus Ridgw. 1882. 

 Peninsula of Labrador, north to Davis strait; island of New- 

 foundland. (Ridgway.) Locally common in northeastern I^abrador 



