396 ANIMAL LIFE IN THE YOSEMITE 



by the birds turning their attention to insects or other forms of animal 

 life. Sometimes they behave as though actually fly-catching. Taking 

 position at the top of a tree, preferably one with dead bare branches at 

 the top, a nutcracker will dart out on the wing as if after passing insects. 

 In Lyell Cailon on July 16, 1915, several of the birds were engaged in this 

 manner. Occasionally one M^ould fly out a hundred feet or more, pur- 

 suing an erratic course before finally returning to its perch. 



The lusty calls of the Clark Nutcracker are to be heard early and late. 

 The notes have a certain nasal intonation which makes them unmistakable 

 when once the naturalist has heard them. The pleading calls of the young 

 are distinctly different in quality from the notes of the adult birds. During 

 the fall months, when the social tendency of the species is most manifest, 

 a great deal of cawing is indulged in. Feeding and calling may go on 

 without mutual interference. In one instance a bird which had been 

 calling loudly was shot and its throat was found to be distended with 

 a large mass of pine seeds. Nutcrackers, like crows, are apt to sound 

 an alarm when a hawk passes near them. Thus at Vogelsang Lake on 

 August 30, 1915, when a Red-tailed Hawk flew close by our camp a party 

 of nutcrackers in the vicinity set up a great outcry. 



Mr. Gabriel Souvelewsky told us that, a number of years ago while 

 climbing about the rocky summits above Vogelsang Lake, he came upon 

 a roosting place of some Clark Nutcrackers. There were about three dozen 

 of the birds in a loose company and the droppings on the rocks indicated 

 that the place had been resorted to for some time as a sort of meeting 

 ground. 



Although they are at times shy and hold themselves far aloof, nut- 

 crackers usually impress one as being of a fearless nature. They are wont 

 to visit camps, and will hop down familiarly among the articles of camp 

 equipment to glean scraps of food. This propensity has lead to their 

 being characterized by some mountaineers as camp-robbers. In our experi- 

 ence this familiarity has been of only pleasing consequence, for we have 

 thus become better informed of the birds and their habits. 



So far as known the Clark Nutcracker does not commonly stand in the 

 same unfortunate relation to other birds which nest within its range as 

 do the California and Blue-fronted Jays. Still, on July 13, 1915, at 

 Tuolumne Meadows, a Western Robin was seen in excited pursuit of a 

 Clark Crow. The robin gained on the object of its chase and was seen 

 to strike several feathers from the nutcracker's back. Whether the nut- 

 cracker had been disturbing the robin's eggs or young was not known. 



