No. 6. 
PINON, JAY: 
A. O. U. No. 492. Cyanocephalus cyanocephalus (Maxim.). 
Synonyms.—BLvuE Crow. Maximinian’s Jay. Pine Jay. 
Description.—Adults: Plumage dull grayish blue, deepening on crown and 
nape, brightening on cheeks, paling below posteriorly, streaked and grayish white 
on chin, throat and chest centrally; bill and feet black; iris brown. Young birds 
duller, gray rather than blue, except on wings and tail. Length of adult males 
I1.00-12.00; wing 6.00 (154) ; tail 4.50 (114); bill 1.42 (36); tarsus 1.50 (38). 
Female somewhat smaller. 
Recognition Marks.—Robin size; blue color; crow-like aspect. 
Nesting.— Not supposed to nest in State. 
General Range.—Pinon and juniper woods of western United States; north 
to southern British Columbia (interior), Idaho, etc.; south to Northern Lower 
California, Arizona, New Mexico, and western Texas; casually along the eastern 
slopes of the Rocky Mts. 
Range in Washington.—One record by Capt. Bendire, Fort Simcoe, 
Yakima Co., June, 1881, “quite numerous.” Presumably casual at close of 
nesting season. 
Authorities.—[“Maximilian’s Nutcracker,’ Johnson, Rep. Goy. W. T. 1884 
(1885), 22.] Cyanocephalus cyanocephalus (Wied), Bendire, Life Hist. N. A. 
Birds, Vol. II. p. 425 (1895). 
Specimens.—C. 
CAPTAIN BENDIRE, who is sole authority for the occurrence of 
this bird in Washington may best be allowed to speak here from his wide 
experience : 
“The Pifton Jay, locally known as ‘Nutcracker,’ ‘Maximilian’s Jay,’ 
‘Blue Crow,’ and as ‘Pinonario’ by the Mexicans, is rather a common resident 
in suitable localities throughout the southern portions of its range, while 
in the northern parts it is only a summer visitor, migrating regularly. It 
is most abundantly found throughout the pifon and cedar-covered foothills 
abounding between the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains and the 
eastern bases of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade ranges in California, Nevada, 
and Oregon. 
“Tt is an eminently sociable species at all times, even during the breeding 
season, and is usually seen in large compact flocks, moving about from 
place to place in search of feeding grounds, being on the whole rather restless 
and erratic in its movements; you may meet with thousands in a place 
to-day and perhaps to-morrow you will fail to see a single one. It is rarely 
met with at altitudes of over 9,000 feet in summer, and scarcely ever in 
