72 NESTS AND EGGS OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



285. Maximilian's Nutcracker ; Pinon Jay — gymnocitta cyanocephala. 

 Greenish-white, spotted everywhere with small blotches of light brown and 

 purple, in some a faint reddish tinge, in many chiefly at the larger end; 

 the complement ranges from three to five in number, and the average size 

 of thirteen eggs is 1.19 by .87. Maximilian's Jay or Blue Crow, which 

 combines the form of a crow with the color and habits of a jay, is found in 

 the Rocky Mountain region, breeding in colonies, placing the nest in small 

 pinon pines and other evergreens from five to ten feet up. The nests are 

 like those of Clark's Crow; usually all in high, open situations, some of them 

 well up steep mountains, and seldom in valleys. They are placed out some 

 distance from the body of the tree, and not particularly well-concealed; 

 are large, coarse and deeply hollowed structures, made mostly of shreds of 

 fibrous plants, bark which breaks up into a mass of hair-like fibre, these 

 forming the lining; while others have weeds and grass worked into the 

 general structure. 



286. Black billed Magpie — pica rustica hudsonica. Grayish-white, 

 with a yellowish, occasionally with a greenish tinge, spotted, da.shed and 

 dotted with markings of purplish or violet-brown ; most thickly around the 

 larger end; six to nine eggs are laid, more commonly seven; size 1.20 to 

 1.40 long by .90 to i. broad. The nest is placed in thick shrubbery, or 

 small trees, of thick foliage. Mr. Fred. M. Dille, of Greely, Weld county, 

 Colorado, in which State this bird breeds abundantly, says it is generally 

 found there in large pine trees, and that he has seen in a single tree four 

 nests, all with eggs in May. The structures are as large as a bushel, dome- 

 shaped, and very strongly built of coarse sticks, lined with fine grasses and 

 an intermixture of mud. 



Hab. Arctic America and United States, from the Plains to the Pacific, except California. 



287. Yellow-billed Magpie — pica nuttalli. Light drab, so thickly 

 marked with fine cloudings of an obscure lavender color as nearly to con- 

 ceal the ground and to give the egg the appearance of an almost violet- 

 brown ; the number laid ranges from three to nine. A set of six eggs, 

 collected in Wheeler Canon, near Santa Paula, Cal., exhibit the following 

 dimensions: 1.31 by .89, 1.28 by .89. 1.31 by .89, 1.32 by .89, 1.30 by 

 .88, 1.28 by .90. This bird is confined exclusively to California, where it 

 breeds abundantly, and begins nesting about the first of April. The nest 

 is constructed similar to that of the Black-billed Magpie. 



289. Blue Jay — cyanocitta cristata. Brownish-olive and occasion- 

 ally olive-drab, thickly spotted with olive-brown. The eggs are, however, 

 very variable in color. The spotting is profuse and pretty uniform, though 

 generally less pronounced than that of the Crow's, and sometimes quite 



