THE PINON JAY. 425 



evidently on their return to their breeding grounds farther nortli, and by again 

 srettino- in front of them I secured several fine males whose testes were but 

 slightly enlarged. These birds are said to breed in large mnnbers in the 

 juniper groves near the eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountains, on the head 

 waters of the Des Chutes River, Oregon. I have also seen them in tlie Yakima 

 Valley, near old Fort Simcoe, in central Washington, in June, 18<S1, in an oak 

 opening, where they were quite numerous. Their center of al)undance, liow- 

 ever, is in the pinon or nut-pine l)elt, which does not extend north of latitude 

 40°, if so far, and wherever these trees are found in large numbers the Pinon 

 Jay can likewise be looked for with confidence. 



Mr. F. Stephens writes me that he saw a mixed flock of this species and 

 Clarke's Nutcrackers within 20 miles of the line of Lower California. 



Mr. L. Belding found them abundant in the pinons between Campo ;ind 

 Hansen's, Lower California, in May, 1884; while Mr. A. W.Anthony rejxirts 

 them abundant on the San Pedro Martir Mountains, in the same State, at 

 altitudes of from 7,000 to 11,000 feet.^ 



On the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains this species is mucli rarer 

 than on the western Ijorder, but it has been found in northwestern Montana, on 

 Marias River, and has even been recorded from eastern Kansas and Nebraska, 

 Avhere, however, it can only be considered a straggler. 



The first nests and eggs of this species were found by Mr. CHiarles E. Aiken, 

 near Colorado Springs, Colorado, on May 13, 1874, where he noticed four other 

 nests at the same time; in all of these the young had just hatched. The set 

 found by him contained five eggs, in which incubation was well advanced; two 

 of these eggs he kindly gave me, and they are now in the United States National 

 ]\Iuseum collection. The first naturalist, however, who observed the nests and 

 young of this species was Mr. Robert Ridgway, who found a colony nesting in 

 a low range of pinou-covered hills in the vicinity of Cai'sou City, Nevada, on 

 April 21, 1868. 



Mr. H. C. Parker, of Carson City, took two sets of eggs of this species 

 in the same locahty, on April 5, 1878, where Mr. Ridgway observed them ten 

 years previously, and one of these is now in the United States National 

 Museum collection. Subsequently he found another colony of these ])irds in 

 another portion of the same range of hills, where he states they were breeding 

 by thousands. 



The late Capt. B. F. Ooss also found this species breeding in tlic vicinity of 

 Fort Garland, Colorado, at an altitude of about 8,500 feet, (hning the first two 

 weeks in May, 187!t, and took nine sets of their eggs, one of wliich is now 

 before n^e. Tlu'ir eggs wen- also taken in northern New M(!xico at abont tlu^ 

 same tiine. 



Their call notes are (piite variable; some of them are almost as harsh as 

 the "chaai-" of the Clarke's Nntcracker, others jjartake nnich of the gabble 

 of the .Magpie, and still others resenihle more those of the Jays. A shrill, queru- 



Proceeiliugs of California AiMileiiiy of Scieiuis, \ ol. 11. ISS'.I, ijp. JSKi. 'JIM. 



