ZOOLOGY. 83 



oaks on the Des Chutes river. There is, of course, no necessary connection hetween the distri- 

 bution of the crows and the oaks, except that both prefer a country to a certain degree open 

 and fertile ; the association extends so far that we did not see crows except where some species 

 of oak grew in greater or less abundance, the region of the pine forests, as well as that of the 

 sage plains, being without them. 



CORVUS OSSIFRAGUS. 

 The Fish Crow. 



The fish crow I saw on the Willamette, Columbia, the coast, and about the bays of Cali- 

 fornia, feeding upon dead fishes and mollusks. 



PICICORVUS COLUMBIANUS. 

 Clarke's Crow. 



This singular bird, the representative of the European nutcracker, (Nucifraga caryocatactes,) 

 was rather common along a large portion of our route, and I was able to procure good speci- 

 mens and study its habits at leisure. It is strictly confined to the highlands and mountains, 

 never, where we saw it, descending to a lower altitude than about 4,000 feet. On the other 

 hand, while crossing the Cascade mountains, at the line of perpetual snow, 7,000 feet above 

 the sea level, I have seen this bird with Lewis and Clark's woodpecker, (M. torquatus,) flying 

 over the snow covered peaks 3,000 feet above us. We first met with it in the spur of the Sierra 

 Nevada, near Lassen's butte, and found it constantly, when in high and timbered regions, 

 from there to the Columbia. 



The habits of this bird are a compound, of about equal parts each, of those of the jays and 

 woodpeckers. Its cry is particularly harsh and disagreeable, something like that of Steller's 

 jay, but louder and more discordant. It has all the curiosity and all the shrewdness of jays or 

 crows, and, from its shyness, is a difficult bird to shoot ; indeed, I was never able to approach 

 within shooting distance of one of them, but obtained my specimens by concealing myself, and 

 waiting for them to "come round." Its flight resembles that of a woodpecker, and, perhaps 

 from caution, it almost invariably alights on a dry tree. Even when going to the living tree, 

 which furnishes it with its food, it always flys into another, a dry one, if one is near, first 

 reconnoiters, and if the coast is clear begins to feed ; but with the first movement of an intruder, 

 without a note of any kind, it puts a safe distance between itself and its enemy. 



The food of the nutcracker at the season when we visited its haunts was exclusively the 

 seed of the yellow pine, (P. ponderosa,) in dislodging which from the cones containing it it 

 displays great dexterity. Steller's jay and Maximilian's jay (Gymnokitta cyanocejohala) were 

 at the same time feeding on the same seeds, but not so exclusively. 



GYMNOKITTA CYANOCEPHALA. 



Prince Maximilian's Jay. 



This jay, for a jay it is for all common purposes, and such I called it when we first 

 found it, is limited, in the region traversed by our party, to the basin of the Des Chutes, 

 in Oregon. The fauna and flora of this district, as well as all its climatic and geographic 

 conditions, connect it with the central desert of the eontineut, a region lying along the 



