60 BULLETIN 191, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



fresh winter plumage as early as August 10. The molts average some- 

 what later in the more southern subspecies. The sexes are alike in all 

 plumages, except that the females are somewhat smaller and have less 

 distinct bars on the secondaries and tail feathers. 



Food. — ^As the food of the California subspecies has been much more 

 thoroughly studied than that of this northern race, and as the feeding 

 habits of the species probably vary but little in the different portions 

 of its range, this subject has been more thoroughly discussed under the 

 blue-fronted jay. Two reports, however, are worth quoting here. Re- 

 ferring to Vancouver Island, Harry S. Swarth (1912) writes: "At 

 Errington, in September, the jays were exceedingly abundant, par- 

 ticularly about die edges of the pastures and grain fields. Harvesting 

 operations were in progress at this time, and a Vv'heat field near our 

 camp had just been cut and the grain piled in shocks. On those nearest 

 the edges of the field, close to the shelter of the woods, the jays were 

 feeding by scores; when startled most of the birds departed, carrying 

 one or more long straws with them, to be thrashed out at their leisure 

 in the nearby woods. Certain favorite stumps and logs were well cov- 

 ered with straws from which the grain had been eaten." 



Ford Dicks (1938) reports considerable damage done by these jays in 

 filbert orchards near Puyallup, Wash., and says: "As a matter of fact, 

 the writer has known of instances where the entire nut crop was los: 

 due to the depredations of Steller's Jays in late summer and early fall, 

 at which time the fruit is approaching maturity." 



Behavior. — Although bold in the defense of their nests and rather 

 tame about camps and houses, where their intelligence tells than that 

 they are not in danger, they are very shy in the open woods, much 

 shier than our eastern blue jay, and difficult to approach or shoot when 

 pursued. They often escape by "climbing" some tall spruce or fir, start- 

 ing on one of the lower branches and hopping or flitting upward from 

 branch to branch around the trunk, as if climbing a spiral staircase, 

 until the summit is reached, when off they go with a derisive scream. 

 At such times their movements are so lively that it is not easy to shoot 

 one. They sometimes travel through the forest in this way, descending 

 from the top of one tree to the lower part of another and so on from 

 tree to tree, until out of sight. The best way to outwit them is to re- 

 main well concealed and imitate their notes, to which their curiosity 

 will generally lead one or more of them to respond. They are notorious 

 as nest robbers and seem to be cordially hated and dreaded by the 

 smaller birds, but they are not always guilty of this practice. William 

 L. Finley (1907) says of a pair that he watched: "If this pair of jays 

 carried on their nest robbing, they did it on the quiet away from home, 



