THE BLACK-HEADED JAY. == ——37 
Columbia River ; and since the district lying between the Columbia and Puget 
Sound presents intergrades between C. stelleri and C. s. carbonacea, obviously, 
those Jays which inhabit the southern portion of this debatable ground are 
better entitled to be called carbonacea than stelleri. 
No. 11. 
BLACK-HEADED JAY. 
A. O. U. No. 478c. Cyanocitta stelleri annectens (Baird). 
Synonyms.—"Biur Jay.” Ping Jay. Mounvratn Jay. 
Description.—Adults: Similar to C. stelleri, but marked with a small 
lengthened white spot over eye; streaks on forehead (when present) paler blue or 
whitish; streaks on chin and upper throat whiter and more distinct; blue areas 
slightly paler and rather more greenish in tone. Size indistinguishable. 
Recognition Marks.—As in C. stelleri. White spot over eye distinctive. 
Nesting.—As in C. stelleri. 
General Range.—Eastern British Columbia and the northern Rocky Moun- 
tains, south to Wahsatch Range in Utah, west to eastern slopes of Cascade Range 
in Washington and Oregon. 
Range in Washington.—Forests of eastern Washington, shading into 
typical stelleri in Cascade Range. Nearly confined to pine timber. 
Authorities——Cyanocitta stelleri annectens, Brewster, Bull. Nutt. Orn. 
ClabmVil, 18825229; (C&s:) Dt. D2. J. 
THERE is no such difference of plumage between C. stelleri and C. s. 
annectens as is suggested by the name “Black-headed” ; but in endeavoring to 
mark eight shades of difference between tweedledum and tweedledee within 
the limits of a single species, we are naturally pretty hard put to it for 
appropriate names. Annectens marks the annexion, or welding together, of 
two branching lines in the C. stelleri group. It is the head of the wish-bone, 
whose divergent arms run down the Sierras to Lower California and along 
the Rockies to Guatamala respectively. 
With a hypothetical center of distribution somewhere in southeastern 
British Columbia, this subspecies inosculates with sfe/leri in the mountains 
of that province, and is roughly separated from the western stock by the 
central ridge of the Cascades, in Washington. 
Black-headed Jays in Washington are normally confined to the limits 
of coniferous timber, being therefore most abundant in the northern portion, 
in the Blue Mountains, and along the eastern slopes of the Cascades. We 
have, however, like Bendire, discovered them on occasion skulking in the 
