42 THE GRAY JAY. 
The hunter knows them for arch sycophants, and he is occasionally able to 
trace a wounded deer, or to locate a carcass by the movements of these 
expectant heirs. Says Mr. A. W. Anthony*: “While dressing deer in the 
thick timber I have been almost covered with Jays flying down from the 
neighboring trees. They would settle on my back, head, or shoulders, tugging 
and pulling at each loose shred of my coat until one would think that their 
only object was to help me in all ways possible.” 
In the higher latitudes “Whisky Jack,” in spite of carefully secreted 
stores, often becomes very emaciated in winter, a mere bunch of bones 
and feathers, no 
heavier than a Red- 
poll. While the Jays 
of our kindlier clime 
do not feel so keenly 
the belly pinch of 
winter, they have 
the same thrifty hab- 
its as their northern 
kinfolk. Food is 
never refused, and a 
well - stuffed — speci- 
men will still carry 
grub from camp and 
secrete it in bark- 
crevice or hollow, 
against the unknown 
hour of need. 
I have never heard 
the Gray Jay titter more than a soft cooing wice ew repeated at random; 
but Bendire credits it with a near approach to song; and Mrs. Bailey says 
of the Jays on Mr. Hood*: “Their notes were pleasantly varied. One 
call was remarkably like the chirp of a robin. Another of the common- 
est was a weak and rather complaining cry repeated several times. A 
sharply contrasting one was a pure clear whistle of one note followed 
by a three-syllabled call something like Ka-wé-ah. The regular rallying 
cry was still different, a loud and striking two-syllabled ka-whee.” 
Taken in Rainier National Park. Photo by J. H. Bowles. 
A BACHELOR’S PET. 
The eggs of the Gray Jay have not yet been reported from this State, 
but it is known that the bird builds a very substantial nest of twigs, grasses, 
plant fibre, and mosses without mud, and that it provides a heavy lining of 
a. The Auk, Vol. III., 1886, p. 167. 
b. Life Histories of N. A. Birds, Vol. II., p. 304. 
c. Handbook Birds of the Western U. S., pp. 278-9. 
