128 BULLETIN 191, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



using the well-known squeaking call. "If the caller be concealed be- 

 neath a tree the bird flies directly to it; its decurved wings then produce 

 an air-drumming that in its rapidity results in a peculiar, hollow, boom- 

 ing whir. The birds may soon discover the human source of the un- 

 usual noises, and thereupon depart, but will return again and again to 

 the place, each time apparently as excited and bubbling over as at the 

 first experience. Here we find a strange anomaly, for this bird has a 

 reputation as the most cunning, wise, and wary of the mountain dwellers, 

 yet it is the one most easily duped by confused squeaks, usually making 

 a ridiculously entertaining show of itself." 



Voice. — Comparing the voice of this jay with that of the Arizona jay, 

 he says: "The much different, and more agreeable, call of the Couch 

 Jay is made up of groups of from three to six notes, and to my ear 

 may best be written as 'oint-oint-oint,' being delivered more slowly, and 

 evenly, in a high pitch. We learned that the Texas bird has, too, an 

 additional and entirely different note which I have never heard from 

 the Arizona jay; it is a loud, rattling, throaty cackle, resembling some- 

 what that given by the Blue Jay, although only an occasional individual 

 in a flock seems to render this call. This particular bird, when the 

 flock is agitated, will issue its gurgling scream repeatedly, but the 

 others make no attempt to join." 



Dr. Van Tyne (1929) noted that "they were very noisy, constantly 

 repeating a shrill, rasping scree, scree, scree. I also heard them give a 

 peculiar rattling note, not unlike the call of Dryobaies pubescens." 



Enemies. — Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway (1874) relate the following 

 incident, apparently quoted from the notes of Lt. D. N. Couch, for 

 whom the subspecies was named: "Near Guyapuco a large snake 

 (Georgia obsoleta) was seen pursued by three or four of this species. 

 The reptile was making every eflfort to escape from their combined at- 

 tacks, and would, no doubt, have been killed by them, had they not 

 been interfered with. The cause of so much animosity against the 

 snake was explained when, on opening its stomach, three young of this 

 species, about two thirds grown, were found." 



XANTHOURA YNCAS GLAUCESCENS Ridgway 

 GREEN JAY 



HABITS 



This brilliantly colored jay brings to that favored region of the lower 

 Rio Grande Valley in Texas a touch of tropical color that adds much 

 to the many thrills one feels as he meets for the first time the many 

 new forms of Mexican bird life to be found only in that unique region. 



