ALASKA JAY 21 



browner, with the anterior portion more distinctly ashy, the forehead less 

 purely white, and the general color, both above and below, decidedly 

 paler, the under tail-coverts dirty whitish or very pale brownish gray." 



The Alaska jay is known to inliabit the wooded portions of Alaska, 

 except the coast region east and south of the Alaska Peninsula, but just 

 where it intergrades with typical canadensis in eastern Alaska or western 

 Mackenzie does not seem to be definitely known. 



In the interior of Alaska, Lee Raymond Dice (1920) found this jay 

 "common in white spruce-paper birch forest, in black spruce forest, in 

 burned timber, and in lowland willows along the streams. In the winter 

 they also frequent the neighborhood of cabins and camps." Dr. Joseph 

 Grinnell (1900a), referring to the Kotzebue Sound region, writes: 

 "During September and October, in my tramps across the tundras lying 

 along the base of the Jade Alountains, I frequently met with two or three 

 jays far out on the plains a mile or more from timber, feeding on blue- 

 berries. * * * Later, in the coldest days of mid-winter, I found them 

 in the dense willow thickets." 



Herbert Brandt (MS.) writes: "Throughout the great wooded in- 

 terior of Alaska, where for eight months the snow and cold reign, the 

 only conspicuous living thing that gladdens the camp and trail of the dog- 

 musher is the Alaska jay. Wheresoever he may go and make his camp in 

 the snow, it is sure to find him; and by his friendly manner this jocund 

 jay gives to the cheerless by-places a touch of life that the naturalist 

 always remembers. At every habitation that we visited and at every camp 

 we made from Nenana to the tundra rim, where we left the trees behind, 

 the Alaska jay was always present. Those hardy pioneers that live in this 

 vast wooded area are outdoor people, with all the keenness and skill in 

 woodcraft that such a life produces, yet in spite of the fact that this 

 neighborly bird is very plentiful, and that the timbered cover in which it 

 lives is mostly open, we did not meet a single person who had seen its 

 egg. Often along our trail the actions of this species made obvious the 

 fact that it was nesting, but I could find no clue that would direct me 

 to its abode. It is evident that during nesting time the bird forsakes the 

 immediate vicinity of habitations, where it is wont to congregate, and 

 retires to a secluded area, which it enters and whence it departs with 

 great caution." 



Nesting. — The natives in Alaska, and in other parts of the range of 

 this species, are unwilling to collect the nests and eggs of this jay, as they 

 are suspicious that some evil will befall them if the nest is disturbed or 

 even if the eggs are counted. Franqois Mercier (Nelson, 1887) offered 

 a tempting reward which resulted in persuading a native to bring him two 

 nests. The older natives in the vicinity "prophesied that the weather 



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