BLUE OR METALLIC BLUE : 489 
soon as they are fully fledged, they seldom learn to hunt 
their food until taught patiently and slowly by their cap- 
tors ; and they never acquire the caution necessary for 
their self-preservation in a wild life. 
478a. BLUE-FRONTED JAY. — Cyanocitta stellert 
Srontalis. 
Famity: The Crows, Jays, Magpies, ete. 
Length : 11.75-13.00. 
Adults: Head, neck, and back brownish slate ; crest blue; forehead 
streaked with blue ; wings and tail dark blue, and barred ; rump and 
under parts dull turquoise. 
Geographical Distribution: Both slopes of the Sierra Nevada, from Fort 
Crook south to Lower California. Westward to the interior valleys 
in winter. 
California Breeding Range: Southern coast ranges and Sierra Nevada 
from Mt. Shasta to Lower California. 
Breeding Season: April 20 to July 10. 
Nest: Usually in a fir tree, from 6 to 50 feet above the ground, some- 
times placed in natural cavities of trees and shrubs; made loosely of 
sticks or stems of weeds ; lined with fine roots and grasses. 
Eggs: 3 to 53; like those of the Steller jay. 
THe Blue-fronted Jay constitutes one of the subdivis- 
ions of the Steller jay. Along the Sierra Nevada from 
Mount Shasta south it breeds more or less abundantly, 
wandering irregularly to the coast in the winter. In 
general habits it is like the coast jay, and the description 
of nesting habits will be found under that species. In 
some localities, however, it is found nesting in cavities 
in trees. At Julian, California, Colonel Goss obtained a 
number of nests from hollow trees at a distance from 
the ground of four to fifty feet. It also builds in snow- 
sheds of the Canadian Pacific Railroad in the Sierra 
