Clark's nutcracker 315 



left the nest, for Taylor and Shaw (1927) write: "The nutcracker 

 population becomes most conspicuous when the young have left the nest. 

 The husky youngsters appear quite as large as their parents, and their 

 squawking calls till the air. They follow the adults with a persistence 

 truly wonderful, awakening the echoes with their stentorian teasing. 

 Presently the parent plunges its bill into the open mouth of the young 

 one, and there ensues what appears to be a struggle for life or death. 

 There is of course no occasion for concern, for this, in nutcracker 

 society, is the orthodox method of feeding the young. The process of 

 regurgitation complete, the participants seem to feel better all around. 

 The respite must seem all too brief to the parent, however, for in a 

 short time the young bird is apparently as hungry and as noisy as ever." 



Mr. Dixon (1934) says that "in the event one of the parents left the 

 nest from any cause, the other bird of the pair would immediately 

 assume brooding duties. ♦ * * Actual time records taken on the after- 

 noon of the 9th of April, which was a warm sunshiny afternoon, re- 

 vealed a change of brooding and feeding duties every thirty minutes 

 on the average." 



Plumages. — The young are hatched naked and with eyes closed, but, 

 when perhaps a week or so old, they are partly covered with down 

 (Bradbury, 1917b), the color not mentioned. The juvenal plumage is 

 acquired before the young bird leaves the nest. Charles F. Batchelder 

 (1884) gives the first full description of the juvenal plumage of Clark's 

 nutcracker in more minute detail than seems necessary here. In a 

 general way, the color pattern is much like that of the adult, but the 

 gray portions are browner and the blacks duller. The upper parts are 

 dull brownish gray, darkest on the rump and scapulars. The white eye 

 ring, superciliary stripe, and the other white about the face of the adult 

 are lacking. The general coloring of the under parts is brownish ash, 

 darkest on the breast, most of the feathers tipped with whitish, giving 

 an indistinct barred effect. The wings are much like those of the adult, 

 but the white in the secondaries is more extensive, some of the primaries 

 have a small ashy spot at the tip, the lesser wing coverts are dusky 

 grayish brown, and the other coverts are indistinctly tipped with the 

 same. The tail is like that of the adult, but the black in the white rectrices 

 is more extensive. The black in both wings and tail is duller than in the 

 adult, and the bill and feet are grayer. I have not seen the postjuvenal 

 molt, but I have seen adults molting in July, August, and September. 



Food. — Like other members of the crow family, the nutcracker is 

 largely omnivorous, though it seems to show a decided preference for the 

 sweet nuts of the piny on pine (Finns edulis), eating the shells as well 

 as the kernels. Grinnell and Storer (1924) report that a female shot 



