CANADA JAY 5 



The bird was seen to fly to the nest and settle down as if incubating. At my 

 close approach it left the nest, hopping about tlie twigs at close range and 

 showing no sign of fear or excitement. Its mate was with it. On examination, 

 the nest was found to be empty. Immediately upon my leaving, the bird was ob- 

 served to fly back and nestle down again. The nest was not visited again until 

 April 20, when the bird was sitting (on two half-incubated eggs) and the mate 

 perched nearby. The sitting bird was loath to leave the nest, and not until the 

 slender spruce was shaken did it hop off, sailing on outspread wings to a dead 

 stub a few inches from the ground. During the two hours spent about the nest, 

 one of the pair never left us, while the other had an uncanny way of vanishing 

 and reappearing unannounced at intervals of about 20 minutes. The behavior of 

 the birds was characterized by a furtive silence. The nest was placed about 12 

 feet up in a slender spruce in woods of open growth in a wilderness district 

 some miles from human habitation. Little, if any, attempt was made at conceal- 

 ment. 



Eggs. — The Canada jay lays ordinarily three or four eggs, but five 

 have been reported, as well as full sets of two. They are normally ovate 

 in shape, rarely short-ovate, and they are usually somewhat glossy, 

 occasionally quite so. The ground color is grayish or greenish white, 

 sometimes very pale gray or pearl gray, and rarely nearly pure white. 

 They are usually quite evenly covered with small spots or fine dots of 

 "deep olive-buff," "dark olive-bufT," "olive-bufT," or "buffy olive"; 

 Bendire (1895) calls the colors "diflferent shades of brown, slate gray, 

 and lavender." The largest spots that I have seen on any of the eggs that 

 I have examined are not over one-sixteenth of an inch in diameter, and 

 these were grouped chiefly about the small end of the tgg. Some eggs 

 are very finely peppered. The measurements of 40 eggs average 29.4 by 

 21.3 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 33.0 by 

 20.3, 29.0 by 22.8, 26.4 by 20.4, and 28.2 by 20.1 millimeters. 



Young. — Mr. Warren (1899) found the period of incubation to be 

 between 16 and 18 days ; it was performed by the female alone. Both 

 parents assisted in the care and feeding of the young, which remained 

 in the nest for about 15 days. He writes: 



The food given t'" the young was always in a soft, partially digested state, and 

 was placed deep in the mouths of the young by the old birds. I often watched 

 them feeding the young when my eyes were not three feet from the birds, thus 

 giving a chance for the closest possible observation. I have held my hand on the 

 side of the nest while the mother unconcernedly fed her babies, but I was never 

 able to take as great liberties with the male. 



During the first few days after the nestlings were born, the male brought 

 most of the food, the female remaininj^ at the nest and, when the male returned, 

 assisting in giving the food to the young by putting her bill into their mouths and 

 forcing down any troublesome morsels. As the birds grew older the female took 

 a more active part in carrying the food. I have timed them during the feeding 

 hours and found that they came and went about every fifteen minutes with great 

 regularity until the young were satisfied. When the male had discharged hi« 

 667497—46—2 



