THE OSPEEY. 



5? 



generally be safely accomplished, andthemetn- 

 brane cut away so clean that it appears to liave 

 been done by the drill itself. Although such 

 work leaves a perfect hole with clean-cut edges, 

 yet it requires great patience and a steady hand. 

 An unguarded movement will often cliip the 

 shell, and then the specimen is ruined. 



In the cases of the ^mall eggs with a fragile 

 shell any trifling with this troublesome skin- 

 flap is attended with still greater danger; yet a 

 thoroughly satisfactory specimen never displays 

 a ragged, untidy or gummy hoe. I have seen 

 eggs of Hummingbirds, even, so nicely pre- 

 pared in this respect that all trace of this film 

 had been removed. In my own experience I 

 have found no better way than careful, patient, 

 almost breathless manipulation with tweezers. 



Sometimes eggs when taken from the nest are 



found to have the contents partially caked and 

 adherent to one side. A noteworthy instance of 

 this in my own experience occurred last summer 

 when I took a set (? ) of 25 eggs from the nest of a 

 Redhead Duck, arranged in two distinct layers, 

 the lower one of w-hich — from lack of frequent 

 turning, probably — gave much trouble in blow- 

 ing from the condition above noted. In such 

 cases a "solution"' of fine shot with water and 

 patient, careful shaking is probabh- the most 

 eff'ective -nay of dislodging the adhering sub 

 stance, since no amount of soaking in water 

 renders it soluble; but of course the obstinate 

 stain remains. I have lately been informed 

 that rinsing the egg at once with a solution of 

 bicarbonate of soda will bleach the membrane 

 when discolored, but I have not yet had an 

 opportunity to verify this. 



THE PINOX JAY. 

 By N. R. Christy, Rouse Junction, Colo. 



THREE miles northeast from Rouse Junction, 

 Colo., is a range of hills, a part of the San- 

 gre de Cristo Mountains, that stretches to 

 the rtpishapa River, a distance of 14 miles. 

 This range is from 7,500 to 8,500 feet high, verj' 

 thickly timbered with pinon, j'ellow pine and 

 cedar, and is the breeding place of a colony of 

 about 150 pairs of Pinon Jaj's. 



This bird is known throughout the state as 

 the Colorado Blue Crow, and as "Pinonario" 

 by the Mexicans of this section. They are resi- 

 dent here, but are seldom seen down in the 

 valleys, except late in the fall, when the3' con- 

 gregate in large flocks until about the middle 

 of March, or first of April, according to the 

 opening of spring, when they commence to pair. 

 When in flocks they are very noisy, keeping 

 up a constant chattering while feeding; but 

 on pairing they become silent, and flit through 

 the woods without a sound. 



A little colony of about a dozen pairs on a 

 small hill a mile west of Rouse Junction (alti- 

 tude 7,000 feet), commence to nest early in 

 April, and higfher up they nest in May. I have 

 found fresh eggs from April 5 to May 20, ac- 

 cording to location. On April 1 of this year 

 I found a nest containing 3 young fully half 

 grown; this is the earliest date I have ever 

 found either ne.st or eggs. On June 6 I found a 

 nest with 4 eggs advanced in incubation; 

 doubtless they were the second set of birds 

 whose first set had been destroj'ed. 



They nest from 6 to 25 feet up in either the 

 pinon or yellow pine; I have never found a 

 nest in any other kind of tree. The nest is 

 generally fixed some distance from the bodj' of 

 the tree, in the crotch of a limb. It is very 



neatlj' made of small twigs of pinon, yellow 

 pine, or greasewood rocjtlets, shreds of bark, and 

 occasionalU' wool, all woven into a compact 

 mass, and lined with rootlets, bark and pine 

 needles. All the nests I have seen are much 

 alike in being plainly visible fiom the ground. 

 The birds are very close sitters and will not 

 leave the nest until you have almost climbed 

 up to them; but then, what a racket they make 

 as they fly oflFl The3' keep it up, too, until they 

 bring all their friends and relatives around to 

 see what is going on, and hear what a '" hard 

 luck" storj- the)- have to tell. 



The eggs are from 3 to 5 in number, usually 

 4. 1 have found cnly 3 sets of o eggs, but quite 

 a number of sets of 3 eggs. They range in 

 shape from ovate to elliptical ovate. The 

 ground color is bluish-white, covered all over 

 with small specks of difl'erent shades of brown, 

 thickest at the large end. Occasionalh- the 

 spots are large and blotchy. Those I have col- 

 lected average in measurement: 1.18 x 0.86 

 inches. 



These birds nest in colonies of from a dozen 

 to 150 pairs, and the territorj' occupied by a 

 colony is from one-half to three-quarters of a 

 mile in length by a quarter of a mile in width; 

 and they generally nest either on or near the 

 top of a ridge. 



But cue brood is raised annuallv. and the 

 young' are big enough to fly by the 25th of June 

 or 1st of Julj'. They commence to flock at 

 once, and about the middle of October descend 

 to the vallevs, where they are a great annoy- 

 ance to the farmers who have fields of corn. It 

 is frequently necessary to cut the corn before it 

 is ripe in order to save it. 



