THE GRAY JAY. see 
been found near Renton where their presence during the breeding season would 
otherwise have gone unsuspected. The depths of the forest have no terrors for 
this quiet ghost, and there are other reasons besides color why he remains the 
obscure one. 
No. 14. 
GRAY TAN. 
A. O. U. No. 485a. Perisoreus obscurus griseus Ridgw. 
Synonyms.—Camp Rosser, etc. 
Description.—‘Similar to P. 0. obscurus, but decidedly larger (except feet), 
and coloration much grayer; back, etc., deep mouse gray, instead of brown, 
remiges and tail between gray (No. 6) and smoke gray, instead of drab gray, 
and under parts grayish white instead of brownish white.” (Ridgway). Length 
(Av. of three Glacier specimens) 11.16 (283.5); wing 5.82 (147.6); tail 5.48 
(gor) bill 7519) tarsus) 1.25 (31-7): 
General Range.—Central mountain ranges of central California, Oregon, 
Washington, and British Columbia. 
Range in Washington.—Thruout the Cascade Mountains and irregularly 
along their lower slopes west (?) to tidewater. 
Authorities.—? P. canadensis Bonap., Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv., Vol. 
IX, pt. II, 1858, p. 591 (Cascade Mts. W. T.). Ridgway, Auk, Vol. XVI., July, 
1899, 225. Kk. ? 
THE ‘“Camp-Robber” appears promptly as interested neighbor and 
smell-feast before all who invade the precincts of the mountains. The hunter, 
the trapper, the prospector, the timber cruiser, the mere camper-out, all know 
him, and they speak well or ill of him according to their kind. The Gray Jay 
appears to have forsworn the craftiness of his race, and he wins by an 
exhibition of artless simplicity, rather than by wiles. The bird is mildly 
curious and hungry—oh, very hungry—but this is Arcadia, and the shepherds 
draw nigh with never a doubt of their welcome. There is a childlike 
insouciance about the way in which the bird annexes a piece of frizzled bacon, 
humbly intended for the man. ‘‘ ‘Shoo,’ did you say? Why, what do you 
mean? Can’t I have it?’ And the bird retires before a flying chip, baffled 
and injured by such a manifest token of ill-breeding. He complains mildly 
to his fellows. ‘They discuss the question in gentle whews; generously con- 
clude you didn’t mean it, and return unabashed to the quest. 
Hunger is the chief characteristic of these docile birds, and no potential 
food is refused, nuts, acorns, insects, berries, or even, as a last resort, the 
buds of trees. Meat of any sort has an especial attraction to them; and they 
are the despair of the trapper because of their propensity for stealing bait. 
