OCT., 1899.1 



BIRDS. 



121 



1 



40. — Clark Crow {Nucifraija Columbiana). 

 (Photographed by Walter K. Fisher.) 



they moved u]) to f imberliiie to feed on the large wingless grasshoppers 

 then abundant along the upper edge of the tongues of dwarf white- 

 bark pines and on the lava-strewn pumice slopes at still higher eleva- 

 tions. Some were seen along the edge of the snow at an altitude of 

 11,000 feet, wliere dragon-tlies, grasslioppers, and otlier insects were 

 common. 



Clark crow is a little larger than a blue jay, and his colors are put 

 on in blocks. The body is gray; the wings and tail are black and white, 

 in conspicuous contrast. Still, singular as it may seem, this colora- 

 tion is both directive and prc^tective. 

 When in motion the bird is most con 

 spiiuious, the black and white i)atclies 

 Hashing with great effect; but when 

 quietly feeding on the ground among 

 the gray lava rocks of the higher 

 slopes it is not easily seen, the gray 

 of the body resembling the gray 

 rocks, the black markings the dark 

 shadows. The coloration, however, 

 is doubtless most protective at night 

 when the bird is at roost in the trees 

 and exposed to its worst enemies, 

 presumably owls and martens. Con- 

 trasts of gray or white with black are among the most effective of 

 disappearing colors at night — the black resembling patches of night 

 shadow, the gray the interspaces. 



The true home of the Clark crow is among the wiiite-bark i)ines of 

 the rocky wind-swept ridges not far from the region of perpetual snow. 

 Here, from the thaws of early spring till the storms of approaching 

 winter, not a day passes without his presence. He is a bold, powerful 

 bird, a fit tenant for such a home, where his loud cry wakes the echoes 

 of glacier clitis a thousand times oftener than it reaches a human ear. 



69. Cyanocephalus cyanocephalus. Piiion Jay. 



Not an inhabitant of Shasta, but occurs in migration about its base, 

 and may breed in the junipers in Shasta Valley. 



September 28, Vernon liailey saw six in the chaparral and yellow 

 pines at an altitude of 4,000 feet on the wagon road between Elk Creek 

 and Ash Creek, and the next day found a few near Sheep Kock. At 

 Fort Crook, a little southeast of Shasta, a number were collected some 

 years ago by Captain Feilner. 



70. Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus. Yellow-headed Blackbird. 



Not observed by us, but in 1883 C. H. Townsend often saw it "among 

 the flocks of Brewer blackbirds that frequented the tini((thy meadows 

 of Berryvale, at the western base of Mount Shasta, 3,.j00 feet altitude." 

 Berry vale is the old name for the meadows near Sisson Tavern. 

 21753— No. 10 1 



