CORVID^ — THE CROWS. 257 



so nearly to the Woodpeckers as to be usually known to the settlers as a 

 bird of that tribe. 



He further remarks that its flight much resembles that of Melanerpes tor- 

 quatus, and, as it alights from the top of a tall dead tree, and sits quietly 

 gazing around, it might readily be mistaken for one of the Picidce. He 

 describes them as being very active in their movements, now flying from a 

 tree to the ground to pick up some article of food, now examining the exca- 

 vations of an old dead stump or snag, or, on being approached, as flying up 

 and alighting upon the extreme summit of a tree, out of gunshot. It is a 

 very noisy bird, and its notes are harsh and discordant, though less so than 

 are those of the Steller's Jay, which is generally seen in the same localities. 

 Its usual note is a harsh guttural clmrr-clmrr, generally uttered when two or 

 more alight on the same tree. Occasionally an individual takes up a pecu- 

 liar piping strain, which is immediately answered by all the others in the 

 neighborhood, thus awakening the echoes of the surrounding solitude with 

 their discordant cries. In regard to its nest he can give no positive infor- 

 mation, but thinks that they breed in cavities in old dead trees and stumps, 

 having found a nest in such a situation in the East Humboldt Mountains, 

 which he thinks belonged to a pair of these birds which were flying about, 

 and seen to enter this cavity. 



Dr. Newberry, in his Eeport on the zoology of his route, states that he 

 found this species rather common along a large portion of it, and was thus 

 enabled to study its habits at leisure. He found it strictly confined to the 

 highlands and mountains, never, where he saw it, descending to a lower 

 altitude than about four thousand feet. On the other hand, while crossing 

 the Cascade Mountains at the line of perpetual snow, seven thousand feet 

 above the sea-level, he has seen this bird, in company with the Mela7ierpes 

 torquahis, flying over the snow-covered peaks three thousand feet above 

 him. 



He first met with this bird on the spur of the Sierra Nevada, near Las- 

 sen's Butte, and found it constantly, when in high and timbered regions, 

 from there to the Columbia. He describes its habits as a compound, in 

 about equal parts of those of the Jays and of the Woodpeckers. Its cry 

 he speaks of as particularly harsh and disagreeable, something like that of 

 Steller's Jay, but louder and more discordant. It seems to combine the 

 shrewdness with all the curiosity of the Jays and Crows, and from its 

 shyness is a very difficult bird to shoot, the Doctor never being able to 

 get directly within killing distance of one of them, but only obtaining 

 specimens by concealing himself and waiting for them to approach him. 

 Apparently from excess of caution, it almost invariably alights on a dry 

 tree. Even when going to a living tree for its food, it always flies first into 

 a dry one, if one is near, to reconnoitre, and, if the coast is clear, it begins 

 to feed. At the first movement of an intruder, without uttering a note, it 

 puts a safe distance between itself and its enemy. 



VOL. u. 33 



