THE STELLER JAY. 33 
other birds and feasting on their eggs. This is not true, altho occasionally 
a Jay will destroy the home of another bird. In Oregon I have often seen 
this bird feeding on wheat about the edge of the fields after the grain has 
been cut. Fruit, grain, grasshoppers and other insects make up a large part 
of his food. 
Several years ago I saw a small flock of California Jays along the 
Columbia River in the dead of winter. During the nesting season the jay is 
too quiet to show his real character. During the autumn and winter he throws 
off all restraint, picks up a few mates and goes wandering about from place to 
place in search of food. The bold and boisterous squawk of the Blue Jay 
always comes to my ear as a welcome and fitting note to relieve the cold quiet 
of the winter woods. 
One day I was watching several English Sparrows that were feeding on 
the ground under an oak when a pair of California Jays came flying thru the 
trees. With aloud squawk one swooped down, with his wings and tail spread 
and his feathers puffed out as much as possible, evidently expecting to scare 
the sparrows. He dropped right in their midst with a screech which plainly 
said, “Get out of here or I'll eat you up alive!” The bluff might have worked 
with any bird except an Englisher. The Sparrows sputtered in contempt and 
were ready to fight but the Jay’s attitude changed in a second. He took on an 
air of meekness and unconcern and hopped off looking industriously in the 
grass for something he had no idea of finding. I thought it a good touch of 
Jay character. 
WitiiaM L,. FINLEY. 
No. 9. 
S PEELER’S JAY: 
A. O. U. No. 478. Cyanocitta stelleri (Gmelin). 
Synonyms.—“Biur Jay.” “JAyBIRD.” 
Description.—Adults: Head and neck all around, and back, sooty black, 
touched with streaks of cerulean blue on forehead, and pale gray on chin and 
throat, this color passing insensibly into dull blue on breast and rump and richer 
blue on wings and tail; terminal portion of tail and wings crossed with fine black 
bars, sharply on secondaries and tertials, faintly or not at all on greater coverts. 
Bill and feet black; iris brown. Young birds are more extensively sooty, and 
wing-bars are faint or wanting. Length of adults about 12.00; wing 5.90 (150) ; 
tail 5.43 (138) ; bill 1.18 (30) ; tarsus 1.80 (46). 
Recognition Marks.—Robin size; harsh notes; blue and black coloration 
unmistakable. 
