118 BULLETIN 191, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Dawson (1923) mentions a note that is strikingly like "the rickety 

 rack rack rack or shack shack shack shack shack of the Magpies." And 

 "exquisite warblings have I heard at a rod's remove, so delicate that a 

 Wren's outburst would have drowned them utterly, but so musical that 

 I had hoped the bird was only tuning his strings in preparation for a 

 rhapsody." 



APHELOCOMA SORDIDA ARIZONAE (Ridgway) 



ARIZONA JAY 



Plates 21, 22 



HABITS 



This is the northernmost race of a Mexican species that extends its 

 range into southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico. Major 

 Bendire (1895) says of its haunts in these localities: "The Arizona Jay 

 is a common resident throughout the oak belt of southern Arizona and 

 New Mexico which generally fringes the foothills of the mountains and 

 ranges well up among the pines. In suitable localities these Jays are 

 very abundant, especially so along the slopes of the Santa Catalina, 

 Huachuca, Santa Rita, and Chiricahua mountains, in southern Arizona, 

 and the ranges adjacent to the Rio Mimbres, in southern New Mexico. 

 They are rarely seen any distance out on the arid plains ; but after the 

 breeding season is over small flocks are sometimes met with among the 

 shrubbery of the few water courses, several miles away from their reg- 

 ular habitat." 



Around the base of the Huachucas, especially where the mouths of 

 the canyons open out toward the plains, are several large groves, or 

 open parklike forests of large blackjack and other oaks ; where the oaks 

 extend upward into the foothills, they form a thicker growth of smaller 

 trees, mixed with scrub oaks and other thick brush. Here, especially 

 among the larger and opener growth at the lower levels, we found 

 Arizona jays abundant and noisy, traveling about in groups of four to 

 eight birds all through the nesting season. I was glad to make the 

 acquaintance of this interesting jay, the only jay I have met that shows 

 a tendency toward communal nesting and gregarious behavior. We 

 saw none above 7,000 feet and found them most abundant from the base 

 of the mountains up to 6,000 feet. W. E. D. Scott (1886) found them 

 in the Santa Catalinas between the altitudes of 3,000 and 7,000 feet. 



Nesting. — In the region referred to above we found numerous nests 

 of the Arizona jay ; nests containing eggs were found during the first 

 three days of May, and nests containing young were seen on May 1 



