CROWS AND JAYS 



223 



more the liluc jay of the I'.ast. The fjeiiernl color 

 pattern of the dress is somewhat the same, l)ut it 

 lacks the crest. 



A small flock of Jays are a noisy pack in the 

 autumn. They si|ua\vk through the woods as if 

 they want everybody to know just where they 

 are, but in the spring after they have paired and 

 are nesting they suddenly go speechless, as if 

 they can't trust themselves to talk out loud. And 

 indeed, they can't when anywhere about the nest. 

 They talk in whispers and flit as silently as 

 shadows through the trees. 



While it is so often reported that the Jay goes 

 through the woods stealing eggs and wrecking 

 the homes of other birds, yet I have often ques- 

 tioned whether there are not some good Jays 

 that should not be called thieves. Perhaps there 

 are robber barons among birds, as among men. 



In one case where we had a good chance 

 to study the home life of a pair of California 

 Jays, I could find no evidence of their nest rob- 

 iiing. If they robbed other birds, they did it on 

 the quiet some distance from their own home, 

 for in their thicket not many yards away, I 

 found a Robin's nest with eggs and the nest of 

 a Thrush with young birds. The Jays evidently 

 wanted to stand well with their neighbors and 

 live in peace. William L. Finlev. 



In southern California two local forms of this 

 Jay are found. Belding's Jay (Aphclocoma cali- 

 foniica obscura) is smaller and darker than the 

 type species. Its back is a deep brownish mouse- 

 gray with the blue parts a deeper hue ; the under 

 parts are decidedly gray in the front, only the 

 lower abdomen and anal region being distinctly 

 white. Xantus's Jay (ApJiclocoma calif arnica 

 hypolcuca) is smaller, also, but it is much paler; 

 the blue portions of its plumage are a lighter and 

 clearer azure and the under parts are usually 

 whiter or not so much tinged with brownish- 

 gray. 



The Island of Santa Cruz, California, has a 

 species all to itself. The Santa Cruz Jay (Aphc- 

 locoma iusularis ) is like the Belding's Jay in 

 color but is larger even than the California Jay. 



Though Mr. Finley gives the California Jay a 

 good character, others say it excels its eastern 

 cousin the Rlue Jay in its bad habits of nest-rob- 

 bing, and that besides robbing the nests of other 

 wild birds it will even rob hen's nests of their 

 eggs. A woman who lived at the mouth of a 



small ravine told Mr. F. E. L. Real of the United 

 States Hiological Survey that one of her hens had 

 a nest under a clump of bushes. Every day a 

 Jay came to a tree a few rods away. When it 

 heard the cackle of the hen announcing a new- 

 egg, it flew at once to the nest. At the same time 

 the woman hastened to the spot but in most cases 

 the Jay readied there first. This Jay will also 

 attack a young chick and with a few blows of the 

 beak kill it ; he then pecks open the skull and 

 eats the brains. Another sin of the California 



Photo by W. L. Finley and H. T. Bohlman 



YOUNG CALIFORNIA JAY AT NEST 



Jay is fruit-stealing. Cherries, apricots, and 

 prunes are the favorites. Analysis showed that 

 while the fruit eaten was only 16 per cent, of the 

 food for the year, it was 44 per cent, of the food 

 in June, 23 in J"ly. 53 i" August, and 25 in 

 September. Five per cent, of the food for the 

 year consists of grasshoppers ; 4 per cent, wasps 

 and bees ; 23 per cent, beetles, bugs, flies, and 

 caterpillars ; 6 per cent, grain, of which the 

 major part was oats ; and about 42 per cent, 

 acorns, chestnuts, beechnuts, and the like, eaten 

 from September to March, inclusive. 



