292 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



restless, and was continually in motion, flying from tree to tree, uttering its 

 well-known cries. 



Mr. Ridgway calls this a very interesting species, and states that it was 

 found very abundant in the fertile canons of the West Humboldt Mountains, 

 as well as in all the extensive nut-pine and cedar woods to the eastward. On 

 the Toyaba and East Humboldt Mountains, and the extensive pinou woods in 

 Southern Idaho, it was equally common. In Utah, in the canons of the 

 Wahsatch Mountains, it was occasionally seen, though oftener observed in 

 the valley of the Weber. When unmolested, this bird is, he states, very 

 unsuspicious, and anything unusual at once excites its curiosity. Often 

 when at work, in camp, skinning birds, on the edge of bushes, one of them 

 would approach within a few feet, and quietly watch every movement. At 

 Unionsville they Avere quite common in the gardens and around the door- 

 yards of the town, and were very familiar and unsuspicious. Their cries 

 greatly resembled those of the California Jay, and consisted of a repetition 

 of harsh screeching notes. 



Tliis species, according to Dr. Coues, is a resident and a very abundant 

 species in Arizona, where it is one of the most characteristic species. It 

 was found in all situations, but seemed to shun dense pine woods, and to 

 prefer to keep on the open liillsides, among the scrub-oaks, etc. In winter 

 it collects in rather large flocks, sometimes as many as fifty togetlier. They 

 are, however, usually seen in small groups of six or seven individuals. 

 They are said to be a restless, vigilant, shy, and noisy species. 



Mr. C. E. Aiken found this bird a common and resident species in Colo- 

 rado. He met with it along the foot of the mountains, in brush thickets, in 

 which tliey also breed. The base and peri[)hery of a nest found by him were 

 composed of dead twigs, intermingled within with fine rootlets and horse- 

 hair. The eggs, four or five in number, are said to be laid about the first of 

 May. They have a ground-color of a light bluish -green, and marked with 

 reddish-brown specks, thickest at the larger end. They are of a rounded 

 oval shape, much more pointed at one end, and rounded at the other, and 

 average 1.06 inches in length by .80 of an inch in breadth. 



Cyanocitta ultramarina, var. arizonse, Ridgway. 



Cyanocitta sordida (not of Swains.!), Baikd, Birds N. Am. 1858, 587, pi. Ix. f. 1. — Ib. 

 Mex. B. II, Birds, 21, pi. xxii, f. 1. — Cooper, Orn. Cal. I, 1870, 305. Cyanocitta 

 sordida var. arizonce, Ridgway, Rep. U. S. Geol. Expl. 40tli Par. 



Sp. Char. Bill short, thick ; half as high as long. Wing considerably longer than the 

 tail, which is slightly graduated (.50 of an inch). Upper surface (including whole side 

 of head to the throat) light sky-blue, the whole dorsal region inclining to pure bluish- 

 ashy. Beneath fine, uniform, pale ash for anterior half (including the throat), this 

 gradually fading into white on the posterior portions (including whole abdomen), the 



