302 BULLETIN 191, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



uary. Large numbers also pass over Helgoland in autumn. On the 

 east coast of England hooded crows arrive from about the second week 

 in October to the third week in November, but occasionally as early as 

 August 5. 



Casual records. — In addition to the Greenland occurrences hooded 

 crows are recorded casually from Iceland, Novaya Zemlya, and Spits- 

 bergen among the northern countries and from southern Spain, north- 

 western Africa, and Egypt in the south. 



CYANOCEPHAl-US CYANaCEPHALUS (\lled) 

 PINYON JAY 



HABITS 



"Maximilian's jay," as it was C;alled by some of the earlier writers, 

 "was discovered and first described by that eminent naturalist Maxi- 

 milian, Prince of Wied, in his book of travels in North America, pub- 

 lished in 1841," according to Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway (1874). 

 "Mr. Edward Kern, who was connected with Colonel Fremont's ex- 

 ploring expedition in 1846, was the first to bring specimens of this in- 

 teresting and remarkable bird to the notice of American naturalists, 

 transmitting them to the Philadelphia Academy." The bird is now 

 known to have a wide range in the Rocky Mountain region and in 

 the Sierras and Cascades, farther west, breeding chiefly in the pinyon 

 and juniper belt, but wandering erratically over much of the intervening 

 and adjacent regions at other seasons. 



Blue crow, a common local name, seems most appropriate for this 

 bird, as it greatly resembles these birds in many of its actions and 

 habits. Its blue color gives it its closest resemblance to a jay, but its 

 short tail and its highly gregarious habits, together with its nomadic 

 tendencies, are hardly jaylike. Its systematic position seems to ally it 

 more closely with the crows than with the jays. 



The foothills and lower mountain ranges, where the slopes are 

 covered with a scattered growth of nut pines or pinyons (Pinus edulis) 

 and junipers (Juniperus occidentalis), with perhaps an undergrowth of 

 sagebrush, are the favorite haunts of the pinyon jay, especially during 

 the breeding season. Here large straggling flocks of these short-tailed 

 blue crows may be seen trailing over these stunted open forests, looking 

 for their favorite food in the nut pines, or building their nests in the 

 low trees. But they may be here today and gone tomorrow in their 

 restless wanderings. 



Migration. — The pinyon jay throughout most of its range is not 

 really a migratory species, though it has been reported in flights that 



