JAYS 387 



sizes of the broods of the small birds were probably long" ago adjusted 

 to the toll taken annually by the jays. Plundering the nest of almost 

 any bird, large or small, early in the nesting season, will be quickly 

 followed by the building of a new nest and the laying of another set of 

 eggs. So that loss once sustained need not mark the total failure of any 

 particular bird pair for the season. In other words, the relation we find 

 obtaining between jays and other birds is the natural, normal condition 

 of affairs, which has come about through a long period of adjustment. 



Interior California Jay. Aphelocoma calif ornica immanis Grinnell 



Field characters. — Body size about that of Robin but tail longer (as long as body) , 

 broader, and rounded at end. No crest on head. Top of head, neck, wings, and tail, 

 blue; back grayish brown; under surface of body grayish white, except for incomplete 

 collar of blue low on breast. Voice: A variety of mildly harsh notes: Jewish, cheek, 

 chu'-icTc, schwee-ick, kschu-ee; young out of nest utter a "teasing scold." 



Occurrence. — Abundant resident of Upper Sonoran Zone on west side of Sierra 

 Nevada. Ranges locally down into Lower Sonoran Zone (as at Snelling) and up into 

 Transition Zone (as at Dudley). Reported in Yosemite Valley (near Lost Arrow Camp), 

 September 25, 1917 (Mailliard, 1918, p. 18), and on several dates in 1920 between 

 July 26 and September 11 (C. W. Michael, MS). Frequents blue and live oaks, digger 

 pines, and chaparral. Non-flocking, but socially inclined. 



The Interior California Jay is a characteristic inhabitant of the oak, 

 digger pine, and chaparral growths which clothe the slopes of the foothills 

 flanking the west base of the Sierra Nevada. Only locally does it invade 

 the Great Central Valley below and to the west, or the pine covered slopes 

 of higher elevation immediately to the east. Beyond the Sierras, in the 

 vicinity of Mono Lake, its niche is taken by a closely similar species, the 

 Woodhouse Jay. Within most of its range as thus circumscribed it is 

 the only bird of its family and is abimdant there at all times of the year. 



Whoever chances to invade the domain of the Interior California Jay 

 will speedily make the acquaintance of the bird, for it is quick to sense 

 the arrival of a newcomer within its range and it promptly makes an 

 investigation of the traveler's business. The large size of the bird and 

 the clear blue of the head, wings, and tail readily identify it as a blue jay, 

 while the grayish white color of the under surface mark it as different 

 from the Pinon Jay which may sometimes \dsit the western foothills. 

 This gray under surface, the paler blue of the upper parts, and the absence 

 of any sort of crest, all combine to make the California Jay easily dis- 

 tinguishable from the Blue-fronted Jay. 



The normal habitat of this species is the foothill oak belt ; in the oak 

 trees the jays find everything necessary for their existence, food, shelter 

 for their nests, and retreats for themselves and young. They are found 



