CORVID^ — THE CROWS. 291 



Their ground-color is a bright, but not a dark, emerald-green ; and they are 

 marked and blotched with faint purplish-brown, and deeper spots of dark 

 umber. These spots are sparingly distributed, and are chiefly about the 

 larger end. In one they are wholly of a light violet-brown. These eggs are 

 of a perfectly oval shape. 



Mr. Charles I). Gibbes, of Stockton, writes that he found in a garden in 

 that city a nest built by a pair of these birds that had become half domesti- 

 cated. It was placed in a very thick arbor of honeysuckle. The body of 

 the nest was composed of clippings from a hedge of osage orange, with thorns 

 on them half an inch long. These twigs were tied and interlaced with twine 

 and bits of cotton strings. Within this frame was a layer of fine weeds and 

 grasses nicely arranged, the whole lined with horse-hair. The nest was 

 found in May, and contained five eggs. The parents kept a good deal 

 about the kitchen door, and would steal anything they had an opportunity 

 to take. They made use of an old nest in the same garden as a receptacle 

 for their stolen goods ; among other things w^as found a large slice of bread- 

 and-butter. 



Cyanocitta californica, var. woodhousei, Baird. 



WOODHOUSE'S JAY. 



Cyanocitta woodhousei, Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 585, pi. lix. — Ib. Mex. B. II, Birds, 

 20, pi. xxi. — Cooper, Orn. Cal. I, 1870, 304. 



Sp. Char. Size and general appearance of C. californica. Bill slender. G-raduation 

 of tail one inch. Blue, with a very obscure ashy patch on the back. Sides of the head 

 and neck and incomplete pectoral collar, blue ; throat streaked with the same. Breast 

 and belly uniform brownish-ash, glossed with blue ; under tail-coverts bright blue. Sides 

 of head, including lores, black, glossed with blue below; a streaked white superciliary 

 line. Length, 11.50; wing, 5.35; tail, 6.10; tarsus, l.GO. Young. All the blue, except 

 that of the wings and tail, replaced by dull ash. 



Hab. Rocky Mountains and Middle Province of United States : north to Idaho and 

 Wyoming (Ridgway) ; south to Northern Mexico ; east to Wyoming and Colorado. 



The bluish wash on the back nearly obscuring the dorsal patch, the 

 general ashy tinge of the under parts, the decided blue under tail-coverts, 

 and the longer and much slenderer bill, distinguish this form from californica, 

 although prolmbly both are geographical races of the same species. 



Habits. This bird was first met with by Dr. Woodhouse among the San 

 Francisco Mountains of New Mexico, and was given by him, in his Report 

 of the Sitgreaves Expedition, as the California Jay. He states in regard to 

 it, that wherever he found the pinon, or nut-pine {Pimis edulis), growing 

 in New Mexico, this bird was sure to be there in great numbers, feeding 

 upon the fruit of those trees. Among the men it was known as the pinon 

 bird. Its notes are said to be harsh and disagreeable. It was extremely 



