22 BULLETIN 191, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



would turn cold, and that a very late spring would ensue as a result of 

 this robbery. As chance would have it the prophesies of the old sooth- 

 sayers came true in a remarkable degree, and the spring was the coldest 

 and most backward by nearly a month of any year since tlie Americans 

 have had possession of the country." After that, he was never able to 

 persuade the natives to hunt for nests. This may be one reason why 

 so few nests of this species have found their way into collections. 



Dr. Grinnell (19(X)a) found a pair of Alaska jays building a nest on 

 March 20. 



It was ten feet above the snow in a dense young spruce growing among a clump 

 of taller ones on a knoll. * ♦ * Although I did not disturb the nest in the least, a 

 visit two weeks later found it covered with snow and apparently deserted. * * * Not 

 until May 13, 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 the nest when I discovered it. Her head and tail appeared conspicu- 

 ously 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 nearby tree 

 where she was joined by her mate. They both remained in the vicinity, but ostensibly 

 paid little attention to me. * * ♦ The nest proper was built on a loose foundation 

 of slender spruce twigs. The walls and bottom consist of a closely felted mass of 

 a black hair-like lichen, many short bits of spruce twigs, feathers of ptarmigan 

 and hawk owls, strips of 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 ! 



Mr. Brandt found his first nest near Flat, Alaska, on April 9, 1924; it 

 contained four eggs ranging evenly in incubation, showing that incubation 

 had begun after the laying of the first egg, which is probably necessary to 

 prevent freezing. For the first 6 days of April the temperature had 

 ranged from 16° below to 35° below zero, though on the 8th it had risen 

 to 30° above. He says in his notes: "The nest of the Alaska jay is placed 

 usually in a spruce tree in a river or creek bottom, and, in the two in- 

 stances of which I have information, they were poorly concealed; yet 

 the forest at that time was so snow-laden that an object as small as a 

 jay's nest is not at all conspicuous near a tree trunk. The incubating 

 bird sits very close, is quiet about the nest, and its mate stays away from 

 the vicinity during the entire time that an intruder is about. Xhe incu- 

 bating bird did not leave its charge until the climber was but a foot distant. 



"The nest found at Flat was 9 feet above the ground and was placed 

 against the trunk of a small scrubby tree 3 inches in diameter, which it 



