18 "THE CLARK NUTCRACKER. 
No. 5. 
CLARK’S NUTCRACKER. 
A. O. U. No. 491. Nucifraga columbiana (Wils.). 
Synonyms.—Ciarx’s Crow. Prine Crow. Gray Crow. “Camp Rogser.” 
(Thru confusion with the Gray Jay, Perisoreus sp.). 
Description.—Adults: General plumage smoky gray, lightening on head, 
becoming sordid white on forehead, lores, eyelids, malar region and chin; wings 
glossy black, the secondaries broadly tipped with white; under tail-coverts and 
four outermost pairs of rectrices white, the fifth pair with outer web chiefly 
white and the inner web chiefly black, the remaining (central) pair of rectrices 
and the upper tail-coverts black; bill and feet black; iris brown. Shade of gray 
in plumage of adults variable—bluish ash in freshly moulted specimens, darker 
and browner, or irregularly whitening in worn plumage. Young like adults, but 
browner. Length 11.00-13.00; wing 7.00-8.00 (192); tail 4.50 (115); bill 1.60 
(40.7) ; tarsus 1.45 (36.8). Female smaller than male. 
Recognition Marks.—Kingfisher size; gray plumage with abruptly con- 
trasting black-and-white of wings and tail; harsh “char-r” note. 
Nesting.—WNest: basally a platform of twigs on which ‘s massed fine strips 
of bark with a lining of bark and grasses, placed well out on horizontal limb of 
evergreen tree, 10-50 feet up. Eggs: 2-5, usually 3, pale green sparingly flecked 
and spotted with lavender and brown chiefly about larger end. Av. size, 1.30 x 
QT (33 Xx 23.1. Season: March 20-April 10; one brood. 
General Range.—Western North America in coniferous timber, from 
Arizona and New Mexico to Alaska; casual east of the Rockies. 
Range in Washington.—Of regular occurrence in the mountains thruout 
the State. Resident in the main but visits the foothills and lower pine-clad levels 
of eastern Washington at the close of the nesting season. 
Authorities —Corvus columbianus, Wilson, Am. Orn, iii. 1811, 29.  T. 
(CaS. IDE, IDE: Jo IB. 
Specimens.—(U. of W.). Prov. E. C. 
NO bird-lover can forget his first encounter with this singular Old-Bird- 
of-the-Mountains. Ten to one the bird brought the man up standing by a 
stentorian char'r'r, char'r’r, char’r’r, which led him to search wildly in his 
memory whether Rocs are credited with voices. If the bird was particularly 
concerned at the man’s intrusion, he presently revealed himself sitting rather 
stolidly on a high pine branch, repeating that harsh and deafening cry. The 
grating voice is decidedly unpleasant at close quarters, and it is quite out of 
keeping with the unquestioned sobriety of its grizzled owner. A company 
cf Nutcrackers in the distance finds frequent occasion for outcry, and the 
din is only bearable as it is softened and modified by the re-echoing walls 
ot some pine-clad gulch, or else dissipated by the winds which sweep over 
the listening glaciers. 
