94 BULLETIN 191, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



the rest, must do duty in turn, and all species of the riparian sylva as well. The 

 thick-set clumps of mistletoe are very hospitable to this bird, and since this 

 occurs on oaks, cottonwoods, and, occasionally, digger pines, it follows that jay- 

 heim is found there also. * * * 



The lining varies delightfully, but is largely dependent, it is only fair to say, 

 upon the breed of horses or cattle affected on the nearest ranch. So we have nests 

 with white, black, bay, and sorrel linings, not to mention dapple gray and pinto. 

 One fastidious bird of my acquaintance, after she had constructed a dubious lining 

 of mottled material, discovered a coal black steed overtaken by mortality. New 

 furnishings were ordered forthwith. The old lining was pitched out bodily, and 

 the coal black substitute installed immediately, to the bird's vast satisfaction— - 

 and mine. 



Eggs. — Four to six eggs generally constitute a complete set for the 

 California jay; as few as two and as many as seven have been re- 

 corded. The eggs are usually ovate in shape, rarely elongate-ovate. 

 They are very beautifully colored and show a wide range of variation, 

 seldom, if ever, equaled and never exceeded among North American 

 birds' eggs. In any series of these colorful eggs there are apparent two 

 quite distinct types of coloration, the green and the red. Lawrence 

 Stevens, of Santa Barbara, writes to me that about half of the sets that 

 he takes are of the green type and half of the red type. He finds eggs 

 of the green type mostly in the creek bottoms in willows, usually in sets 

 of four, and finds eggs of the red type mostly on the hillsides, in sets 

 of five. As several other collectors do not agree with him on these 

 points, there is probably no correlation of color with the locality or the 

 size of the set. He mentions one set that has a cream-colored back- 

 ground with red spots, that one would hardly believe to be jays' eggs. 



James B. Dixon tells me that only about two sets in ten are of the red 

 type. Dawson (1923) describes the colors very well as follows: 



The red type is much the rarer. In this the ground color varies from clear 

 grayish white to the normal green of the prevailing type ; while the markings — 

 fine dots or spots or, rarely, confluent blotches — are of a warm sepia, bister, verona 

 brown, or Rood's brown. The ground color of the green type varies from pale 

 sulphate green to lichen green, and the markings from deep olive to Lincoln green. 

 In the Museum of Comparative Zoology we have a set kindly furnished by Mr. 

 H. W. Carriger, whose markings are reduced to the palest subdued freckling of 

 pea-green. In another set of the red type, fine Mars brown markings of absolute 

 uniformity cover the egg; while the eggs of another set are covered as to their 

 larger ends with an olive-green cloud cap, which leaves the remainder of the 

 specimen almost free of markings. 



Bendire (1895) describes the eggs somewhat differently as follows: 

 "The ground color of the egg of the California Jay is very variable, 

 ranging from deep sea green to pea and sage green, and again to dull 

 olive and vinaceous buff. The eggs with the greenish ground color 

 usually have markings of a dark bottle-green tint, mixed sometimes 



