110 BULLETIN 191, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



with various shades of brown, pale shades of "ferruginous" or "tawny," 

 in small blotches, spots or fine dots, and sometimes with a few under- 

 lying spots of pale drabs. The measurements of 50 eggs average 27.8 

 by 20.4 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 31.0 

 by 21.5 and 24.3 by 19.2 millimeters. 



Young. — Bendire (1895) says that "incubation lasts about sixteen 

 days, both parents probably assisting; and I think that but one brood 

 is raised in a season." Dr. Linsdale (1938b) found a family of four 

 young birds near one of the nests described above. "Both parents," 

 he says, "were present, and they were feeding the young ones. During 

 this process the adult made no sound, but feeding calls were uttered 

 by the young. Once when a young one was preparing to fly to one of 

 its parents following the other, a slight movement by the observer 

 resulted in a sharp call from a parent jay. Following this the young 

 bird remained perfectly quiet for about a minute. It then began to 

 move about, but another warning call caused it again to become silent." 



Mr. Rockwell (1907) says: "The young of the year are not very 

 much in evidence until they are well matured, but during August and 

 September by which time the young are all able to take care of them- 

 selves the birds are particularly conspicuous and noisy. * * * As soon 

 as the young birds are able to travel there seems to be a sort of vertical 

 migration, during which large numbers of the birds ascend a few thou- 

 sand feet into the heavier timbered country." But, he continues, "this 

 vertical movement does not affect the entire number of the species." 



Plumages. — The plumage changes of Woodhouse's jay are apparently 

 similar to those of the California jay. But the juvenal plumage seems 

 to be somewhat different, whic.h Ridgway (1904) describes as follows: 

 "Pileum plain mouse gray; rest of upper parts (except wings and tail) 

 plain brownish gray or deep drab-gray; an indistinct superciliary line, 

 or series of streaks, of white ; general color of under parts dull light 

 brownish gray, paler on chin, throat, chest, and abdomen, deeper and 

 more brownish on upper portion of breast, against pale grayish jugular 

 area ; wings and tail as in adults, but smaller wing-coverts gray and 

 lesser coverts indistinctly tipped with the same." 



Food. — Like its neighbors and relatives in California, Woodhouse's 

 jay is quite omnivorous, and its food covers the same wide range. 

 Where oaks and nut pines, or pinyons. are abundant, the fruits of these 

 trees evidently make up the largest percentage of the food of this jay 

 at the proper seasons. During the summer it is said to feed somewhat 

 on grasshoppers and other insects. Mrs. Bailey (1928) says that "in 

 some of the few stomachs examined, three-quarters of the food consists 

 of pinyon nuts. Acorns, wheat, ground beetles, grasshoppers, cater- 



