234 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



time watching the Clarke Crows and Oregon 

 Jays. These birds have learned to come about 

 the hotel for their daily meals all during the 

 summer, and, from the interest that people take 

 in these birds and the squirrels, I sometimes think 

 they are almost as big an attraction as the very 

 mountain itself, for most people do really have 

 a love for outdoor creatures that have changed 

 their normal habits and have become so tame 



Phuto by \V. L. Bl.iIIv Lciurtisy -A b'ldd and Stream 



CLARKE'S NUTCRACKERS 



Near Butte, Montana, at an altitude of 7,000 feet 



through protection that they will eat from the 

 hand. The scraps from the table are thrown 

 over the cliff down below the Inn on the west 

 side. Here is the best place to study Crows and 

 Jays. 



The Clarke Crow is very fond of meat, and 

 for this reason he has often been called " meat 

 bird." His taste for suet or for peanuts often 

 leads the bird to become quite bold and even to 

 take food from the hand. The Oregon Jays are 



even bolder than the Crows. They are both com- 

 monly known as " camp robbers." 



In a recent trip through Yellowstone Park. I 

 was surprised to find the Clarke Crow so much 

 wilder than the Rocky Mountain Jay. On ac- 

 count of the protection they receive, many of 

 the wild birds and animals have become so tame 

 that they feed from the hand. While we fed the 

 Jays in many places, I never saw a single Crow 

 come down near the hotel. However, they per- 

 haps do this at different times and places. It 

 may have been that natural food was so abun- 

 dant in the forests they did not care for the 

 offerings of civilization. All during our trip, we 

 saw them launching out from tree-tops, some- 

 times with a long swoop, opening their wings 

 and letting themselves curve up before the next 

 drop. Their continuous, harsh, rattling call that 

 sounds like Char-r! Char-r! is a familiar and 

 typical sound of the pine timber and rugged 

 mountains. William L. Finley. 



The winter food of the Nutcracker is the 

 seeds of conifers. These he obtains by landing 

 on a branch bearing a cluster of cones; almost 

 before he has gained his balance, he starts off 

 again with an upward flip of his tail and a cone 

 loosened by his foot rattles to the ground. The 

 cone he then picks up in his bill and carries it 

 to some place where he can knock ofif the scales 

 and get at the seeds. In the spring, summer, 

 and fall he feeds on berries, the seeds of the sun- 

 dial (lupine), larvae, butterflies, black crickets, 

 beetles, and grasshoppers. Hulled pine seeds are 

 fed to the nestlings. 



PINON JAY 

 Cyano(iephalus cyanocephalus (Maximilian) 



A. O. U. Number 492 



Other Names. — Blue Crow ; Pii'ionero. 



General Description. — Length, iij/' inches. Plum- 

 age, grayish-blue. Tail, almost square; much shorter 

 than wing; head, not crested; bill cylindrical. 



Color. — Adult Male: General color, uniform dull 

 grayish-blue, paler on posterior under parts, deepen- 

 ing on crown, hindneck. and ear region into a much 

 darker and more purplish-blue, the sides of the head, 

 brighter blue (almost azure-blue) ; chin, throat, and 

 center portion of chest, broadly streaked with grayish- 

 white ; anal region, very pale bluish-gray or grayish- 

 white ; iris, brown. Adult Female: Similar to the 

 adult male, but averaging decidedly smaller and usually 

 much duller in color. Young: No blue on body. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest: Located usually in pinon 

 pines or junipers, from 5 to 12 feet up; a large, bulky, 

 but compact structure, made of sagebrush twigs, weeds, 

 grass, and stems, lined with gray fibrous bark, which 

 is broken by the movements of the bird on the nest 

 into small fibers, forming a felt-like lining. Eggs : 

 3 to 5, bluish-white, thickly and evenly spotted over 

 whole surface. 



Distribution. — Pihon and juniper woods of western 

 United States; north to southern British Columbia, 

 Idaho, etc., south to northern Lower California, Arizona, 

 New Mexico, and western Texas, east to eastern side 

 of Rocky Mountains in winter to Nebraska, casually to 

 eastern Kansas. 



