April 1904] BIRDS OF THE HUACHUCA MOUNTAINS, ARIZONA. 33 



green still lingered. In many cases the limbs were broken down by the 

 weight of the birds. From the appearance of the excreta it was evi- 

 dently a large species of bird that was roosting there, and as on a careful 

 examination none but raven feathers could be found lying about, I came 

 to the conclusion that it was they who were using the place, though I 

 never found them roosting in such large numbers in any one place before. 

 At the neighboring schoolhouse the ravens were in the habit of 

 gathering early in the afternoon, and cleaning up the scraps thrown aside 

 from the children's lunches, strutting about the doorsteps like so many 

 chickens. They are late in breeding though here in abundance all 

 through the spring; and at nearly the end of May I have seen flocks of 

 a hundred or more birds. I have found eggs the first week in June, but 

 the bulk of them probably lay rather later. Their nests are scattered in 

 considerable numbers along the washes leading from the mountains, 

 being built indiscriminately in sycamores, walnuts, mesquites, or any- 

 thing that will suport the structure. From the nature of the trees they 

 are in they are seldom over twenty or twenty-five above the ground, ana 

 I saw one nest in a little mesquite not over four feet from the ground. 

 Early in August the young birds begin leaving the nests, and when they 

 have attained their growth young and old gather together in enormous 

 flocks. Juveniles taken at this time are much like the adults, but the 

 plumage is of a dull black with none of the purplish gloss of the old birds, 

 except on the wing and its coverts ; the lanceolate throat feathers of the 

 adult are also lacking, but the base of the feathers of the throat and neck 

 is white, as in the old bird. The base of the lower mandible is light col- 

 ored, (reddish in the dry skin) to a varying .extent. Three young birds 

 nearly full fledged, were taken from a nest August i6, 1902, and in spite 

 of their protests, vocal and otherwise, taken to the camp and lodged in 

 a large box. One soon died but the others did very well and returned to 

 Los Angeles with us in Septem.ber. About the first of October they com- 

 menced to moult ; by the middle of the month they were very ragged 

 looking, one being completly bald, but by the first of November they had 

 renewed their entire plumage, except the rectrices and remiges. When 

 we first secured them about the basal half of the lower mandible was 

 light colored, but this area became more and more restricted, retreating 

 toward the base of the bill, until by the time the moult was completed 

 the bill was entirely black. 



Nucifraga columbiana (Wilson). Clarke Nutcracker. 



My personal experience with this species has been extremely 

 limited. On June 21, 1902, a single bird passed over my head going in a 

 southerly direction, at the extreme summit of the mountains. This is 

 the only one I have seen, but I have some taken in the Huachucas by H. 

 Kimball durinp- April. iSoS T have been told th^t it is of quit" common 

 occurrence at times, but it is probably very irregular in its visits. 



Cyanocephalus cyanocephalus (Wied). Pinon Jay. 



On May 8, 1902, a large flock of Pinon Jays was seen late in the 

 afternoon, flying about some oaks on a steep hillside, apparently looking 

 for a place to roost. They were very restless and hard to approach, and 

 it "was with great difficulty that I secured three of them. Another flock 

 was seen on May 15, but no more secured. The three I shot, a male and 

 two females, were adult birds in rather worn plumage, and it is some- 

 thing of a puzzle just what they were doing here at this time, as they 

 do not breed anywhere in the Huachucas. On August 22, 1902, I heard 



