108 BULLETIN 191, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



frequently saw them flying ahead of us or sailing from one oak to 

 another, with blue wings and tail widespread, or heard their squawking 

 cries, but to shoot one was another matter ; a long shot at one on the 

 wing obtained my only specimen. 



In New Mexico, according to iMrs. Bailey (1928), this jay is widely 

 distributed "among the nut pines, junipers, and scrub oaks of Upper 

 Sonoran zone." Dr. Coues (1874) says that its preference "is for 

 oak openings, rougli, broken hill-sides, covered with patches of juniper, 

 manzaiiita, and yuccas, brushy ravines and wooded creek-bottoms." Dr. 

 Jean M. Linsdale (1938b) says that, in Nevada, "resident Wood- 

 house jay was found regularly in small numbers about every logality 

 worked, from a little over 6,000 feet, near the base of the mountains, 

 up to about 9,000 feet on the ridges. Individuals or family groups were 

 found in the thickets of willow and birch along the streams and in the 

 pifions and mountain mahoganies on the adjacent slopes and ridges." 



In Colorado these jays range from 6,000 up to 9,000 feet, where 

 Robert B. RocJ^well (1907) says that "their favorite haunt is a gulch on 

 an open hillside, which is heavily covered with scrub-oak, service-berry 

 and piny on, and here they are found in numbers, flitting thru the under- 

 brush and keeping out of sight as much as possible, but continually 

 uttering the coarse, grating cry characteristic of so many of this family." 



Nesting. — We did not succeed in finding a nest of Woodhouse's jay 

 in Arizona : they are said to be very well concealed, and probably we 

 overlooked some, whic,h might easily happen, as Robert B. Rockwell 

 (1907) says that "in the location and concealment of the nests they 

 are evidently adepts, as in five years' observations I found but two 

 nests, one of which was unoccupied" ; and this was in a locality in 

 western Colorado, where the birds were abundant. 



He describes the finding of his nest as follows: 



As mj' pony brushed against a peculiarly thick dump of service-berry I heard 

 a very slight flutter and not seeing a bird fly out, I dismounted and forced my 

 way into the clump. As I did so the bird slipped quietly out on the other side and 

 I caught a fleeting glimpse of her as she flew, barely a foot off the ground, into 

 a nearby bush. 



The nest, for such it proved to be, was built near the center of the clump and 

 about four feet from the ground. It was held in place by a tliick net-work of 

 small angular twigs and two larger vertical branches none over Y^ inch in 

 diameter. The only concealment afforded the nest was the thick mat of leaves 

 at the extremity of the branches which formed a sort of canopy about the ex- 

 terior of the bush, not a leaf being near enough to the nest to afford concealment; 

 but right here is where I discovered the secret of their concealment. The outer 

 structure of course so nearly resembles the network of small twigs in the service- 

 berry bush that it was difficult to tell where the nest stopped and the twigs began. 



The nest itself, which at first appeared to be a rather fragile structure, upon 

 closer examination proved to be a remarkable piece of bird architecture. It was 



