304 BULLETIN 191, UNITED STATES NAllONAL MUSEUM 



She mentions a few nests found by J. Stokley Ligon in New Mexico: 

 "He says they nest generally from March 1-31, in gray live oaks 

 among the pinyons, though occasionally in pinyons, even where the oaks 

 can be had. * ♦ * On February 17, while the ground was still half 

 covered with snow, on the southwest side of Black Mountain in the 

 Datil Forest, at about 7,500 feet he found one nest about complete 

 and others under construction, in scattered scrub oaks on a steep grassy 

 canyon side. There were more than fifty birds in pairs and flocks 

 mingling and scattering and flying about noisily. On March 3, he 

 returned to the colony and found nests in almost all the scrub oaks of 

 sufficient size, but never more than one in a tree. One, half completed, 

 was in a juniper. The birds, slow to leave their nests, finally did so 

 noisily. As it had snowed many times since his first visit, the nests 

 were damp from melted snow. Nearly all contained four eggs, but one 

 had five." In the same general region, and at about the same elevation, 

 he discovered a second, smaller nesting colony on March 4; and a third 

 colony of perhaps 150 birds was found on March 28; many of these 

 nests held eggs. 



Major Bendire (1895) tells us that "the first nests and eggs of this 

 species were found by Mr. Charles E. Aiken, near Colorado Springs, 

 Colorado, on May 13, 1874. ♦ * * The first naturalist, however, who 

 observed the nests and young of this species was Mr. Robert Ridgway, 

 who found a colony nesting in a low range of piiion-covered hills in the 

 vicinity of Carson City, Nevada, on April 21, 1868." 



Col. N. S. Goss (1891) reports that his brother, Capt. B. F. Goss, 

 took nine sets of eggs of the pinyon jay in May 1879 near Fort Garland, 

 Colo. "The nests were all in high, open situations, two of them well up 

 the steep mountain sides, and none in valleys or thick timber. All were 

 in small pifion pines, from five to ten feet up, out some distance from 

 the body of the tree, and not particularly well concealed." 



J. K. Jensen (1923) says that "the nesting season extends from 

 February to June, during which time fresh eggs may be found," in New 

 Mexico. He found a set of four fresh eggs on May 18, and on March 19, 

 "a colony of thirteen nests each containing four young, some full grown." 

 On March 15 he located a colony of 17 nests, all with fresh sets, two 

 of three, eleven of four, and four of five. "All the nests found were 

 placed from two to eight feet from the ground — average height five feet, 

 and all but one were built in pinon pines, this one being plac.ed four 

 feet up in a juniper." 



Eggs. — Four or five eggs, oftencr the former, constitute the ordinary 

 set for the pinyon jay; as few as three incubated eggs have been found 

 and rarely as many as six eggs or young have been recorded. The 



