BLUE-FRONTED JAY 67 



which are possibly less frequented by squirrels. At the time, there were 

 numerous patches of snow along the stream, and a few hundred yards 

 higher the whole range was completely blanketed in white. The willows 

 were still dormant. As will be noted from the photograph (pi. 12), 

 the nest is lined with pine needles, which are those of the Jeffrey pine 

 (Pinus jeffreyi)." 



RoUo H. Beck wrote to Major Bendire (1895) : "I have found about 

 a dozen of their nests, placed in oaks, buckeye, laurel, and holly bushes, 

 at various distances ranging from 7 to 40 feet from the ground." Some 

 unusual, or unexpected, nesting sites have been recorded. Col. N, S. 

 Goss (1885) found quite a number of the nests near Julian, Calif., "and 

 in all cases but one in holes and trough-like cavities in trees and stubs, 

 ranging from four to fifty feet from the ground, generally ten to twenty 

 feet up. The nest found outside was built upon a large horizontal limb 

 of an oak close beside a gnarl, the sprout-like limbs of which thickly 

 covered the nest overhead, and almost hid it from view below. * * * 

 The nests are quite bulky, made loosely of sticks, stems of weeds, and 

 lined with fibrous rootlets and grasses, and as they are all built at or 

 near the opening, the tell-tale sticks project and make the findings of 

 their nests an easy matter." 



Walter E. Bryant (1888), on information received from A. M. Inger- 

 soll, writes: 



A strange departure from the usual habits of jays was noticed in Placer County, 

 Cal., where they had persisted in building within the snow-sheds in spite of the 

 noise and smoke of passing trains. The destruction of their nests by the men 

 employed on the water train, which makes two trips a week through the sheds 

 during the summer, sprinkling the woodwork and tearing down the nests of jays 

 and robins with a hook attached to a pole, seemed not to discourage them. So 

 accustomed do the jays become to the passing of trains, that they v/ill often 

 remain on their nests undisturbed. In one season m.ore than two hundred nests 

 of jays and robins were destroyed, so the t'ain men say, between Cisco and 

 Summit, a distance of thirteen miles. 



These, like all jays, are very secretive in their nesting activities and 

 use the greatest stealth in approaching the nest while building it or when 

 it contains eggs or young. But Grinnell and Storer (1924) were able, 

 under favorable circumstances, to observe a pair building their nest. 

 They say: 



One of the jays was seen to fly into a black oak, obtain a twig, and carry it 

 off, upward, through the adjacent trees to the nest site, at the top of a yellow 

 pine, fully 40 feet above the ground. Then the other member of the pair came, 

 broke off a twig, dropped it, evidently by accident, and sought another. * * * 

 Pieces dry enough to break off readily, and a little longer than the jay's body, 

 were chosen, and twisted off by a wrench v/ith the bill. The twig would be 

 worked along between the mandibles until held across the middle and then the 



