JAYS 381 



comes to naught because of the blatant squawking of one of these garrulous 

 informers. In our own case, frustration of our original purpose has more 

 than once resulted in our pointed attention being directed toward the 

 disturbing jay! 



The Blue-fronted Jay spends much the greater part of its time in the 

 trees; it does not forage extensively on the ground as does the California 

 Jay. A favorite perch is near the top of a. tall tree where it can command 

 a wide range of vision and hence see all that goes on in the forest. Ascend- 

 ing a tree it is wont to keep close to the trunk and hop upward from one 

 limb to another, assisted occasionally b}^ a flutter of the wings. At times 

 a bird will ascend one tree, then sail down on spread wings and tail to 

 the bottom of an adjacent tree and from there repeat the performance. 

 Such actions are usually accompanied by certain of the harsh scolding 

 calls described later. This trait of keeping close to the trunk, "like follow- 

 ing a spiral staircase" as one observer has expressed it, makes the birds 

 difficult to watch during the nesting season when they are endeavoring 

 to avoid being seen. At such times they often run along lengthwise on 

 the branches in furtherance of their attempts to elude observation. A 

 mannerism of the bird which particularly impresses the observer at times 

 is its turning the head abruptly this way or that while looking about ; 

 in so doing its tall pointed crest is switched from side to side so that the 

 presence of this adornment is emphasized. 



The jays are closely related to the crows and share with those birds 

 the possession of an elaborate vocabulary. A commonly heard call of 

 the Blue-fronted Jay is a series of harsh staccato notes variously rendered 

 chuck, chuck, chuck, or quick, quick, quick, or kschdk, kschdk, kschdk, 

 given in quick succession and usually uttered as the jay flies off, on spread 

 wings and tail, and sails into the shelter of a neighboring tree. Then 

 there is a softer though yet harsh, more slowly enunciated, scolding ksch, 

 ksch, ksch, or kwisch, kwisch, kwisch, given three or more times while a 

 jay is perched or hopping upward in a tree. Again there is a deeper, 

 hollow toned or wooden, glook, glook, glook. Occasionally a jay will take 

 position in dense foliage and then utter a clear, whistled skwec-oo, 

 resembling the cry of a Red-tailed Hawk as heard at a distance. Under 

 similar circumstances we have heard two other, weird notes, which, since 

 we are unable to express them in syllables or to imitate them, we must 

 merely designate as the 'dry-pump' note, and the 'wheelbarrow' note. A 

 modification of the ksch note leads to kschuey, more prolonged and more 

 often uttered singly than in series of three. When two jays of a pair are 

 hunting close together a low crackling or growling ker'r'r'r'r is uttered. 

 This cannot be heard at any distance and seems to be used most frequently 

 during the nesting season. All these calls are uttered with modifications 



