120 BULI F.TIN 191, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



surprised to find another nest, precisely similar to the first, only about a foot 

 away from it on the same branch, further out from the main stem of the tree. 

 The female bird was sitting on the nest first built, and remained there until I 

 was about to put my hand upon her; no eggs had been laid. ♦ * ♦ 



On the 1st of April I again visited the two nests first mentioned, and though 

 the old bird was sitting on the nest earliest completed, it still contained no eggs. 

 A visit to the same spot on April 7 was rewarded by finding five fresh eggs in 

 this nest. * ♦ ♦ The other nest did not, at this time or afterward, contain eggs ; 

 though I visited it for several weeks, at intervals of five or six days. 



The striking features developed by these observations are, first, the long period 

 after the nest was built before eggs were laid (the nest being evidently complete on 

 March 16, and having no eggs until later than April 1), though the old birds, one 

 or the other, were sitting on the empty structure; and, second, the building of 

 another nest in every way identical with the first, and very close to it, which was 

 of no obvious use, for I never noticed either of the old birds sitting on it, as was 

 so constantly their habit in the nest close by. 



Lt. H. C. Benson, according to Bendire (1895), found this jay breed- 

 ing abundantly in the vicinity of Fort Huachuc.a, Ariz., during April 

 and May 1887. "All of the nests taken by him, some thirty in number, 

 were placed in oaks, from 12 to 30 feet from the ground, usually about 

 15 feet high, being generally only moderately concealed." The Major 

 describes one of his nests as follows : "It is composed outwardly of small 

 sticks and twigs; next comes a layer of fine rootlets, well woven to- 

 gether — this mass is alone over half an inch in thickness — and, finally, 

 the inner nest is lined with a liberal supply of horsehair. It is well 

 constructed, and measures about 10 inches ac.ross externally by 4 inches 

 in depth ; the inner diameter is about 4^4 by 2 inches in depth." 



A nest I collected in Arizona, and afterwards presented to the United 

 States National Museum, is somewhat larger than those described above 

 and apparently was made with larger sticks. The outside diameter is 

 13 inches, or 18 inches, if the longest extruding twigs are included; the 

 outside height is 6 inches ; and the largest sticks in the foundation are 

 from yi to % oi an inch in diameter, rather large and long for a jay 

 to handle. 



Eggs. — ^The number of eggs in a set varies from four to seven ; per- 

 haps three sometimes constitute a full set; four is the commonest num- 

 ber, and five is not a rare number. In the United States National Mu- 

 seum there are 34 sets, with only one set of six and one of seven among 

 them. The eggs are unique among jays' eggs, in being entirely un- 

 spotted. They vary in shape from ovate to elongate-ovate and are some- 

 what glossier than the eggs of other jays. They have been said to closely 

 resemble eggs of the robin and the crissal thrasher, but they are larger 

 than either of these birds' eggs and of a somewhat different color, 

 greener than either. Bendire (1895) calls the color glaucous green. I 



