couch's jay 125 



APHELOCOMA SOROIDA COUCHI (Baird) 

 COUCH'S JAY 



HABITS 



This is another of the sordida group of jays that extends its range 

 northward from Mexico into the Chisos Mountains in central-western 

 Texas. Van Tyne and Sutton (1937) report the capture of a specimen 

 near Alpine, which is near the northern end of Brewster County, Tex., 

 and about 85 miles north of the Chisos Mountains, "the only record 

 for Couch's Jay in the United States outside of the Chisos Mountains." 



Referring to the subspecific characters of this race, they write: "Since 

 the published descriptions of this subspecies provide no very satisfactory 

 comparison between couchii and arizonae we offer the following com- 

 ments: couchii is brighter, richer blue above than arizonae, especially 

 on the head, rump, wings, and tail ; in couchii the gray-brown of the 

 back is darker and more contrasted with the blue of the head and neck 

 than in arizonae; in couchii the throat is white in rather sharp contrast 

 with the gray of the breast, while in arizonae the throat is gray, shading 

 gradually into the gray of the breast; the thighs of couchii are gray or 

 blue-gray but in arizonae they are practically concolor with the flanks; 

 the bill of young arizonae is mottled with yellowish, and this often per- 

 sists for at least a year, but in couchii the bill becomes entirely black 

 soon after the young bird leaves the nest." 



They found this jay "common everywhere above the lower limit of 

 trees (about 5000 feet)" in the Chisos Mountains, Herbert Brandt 

 (1940) also found Couch's jay very common in these mountains and 

 has written considerable about it. As to its relationship to the Arizona 

 jay he says: "The geographically connecting link between these two 

 birds is said to be far south in Mexico, so the territories occupied by 

 these two distantly related subspecies are the terminals of a long, horse- 

 shoe-shaped range. The habitats of the two birds, instead of being 

 separated by but four hundred miles — or the distance from the Big 

 Bend to Arizona — are in reality some eighteen hundred miles apart. 

 This may be seen by following south their respective mountainous ter- 

 ritories — one along the western highlands of Mexico, the other on the 

 eastern side — until these mountains blend into each other on the plateau 

 of lower mid-Mexico, The evidence, however, from the standpoints 

 of dissimilar eggs, nest, voices, and size, perhaps explains in part the 

 reason for the view of the older ornithologists that the Couch and 

 Arizona Jays were two distinct species," 



Nesting. — Van Tyne and Sutton (1937) report the following nests 

 observed in the Chisos Mountains: "On April 27, 1935, Semple found 

 a nest and four eggs in a willow oak that stood along a dry stream bed 



