262 NESTS AND EGGS OE 



and prefers the realms of solitude to the haunts of man. It is nearly 

 always found in company, with the California Thrasher, Harporhyn- 

 chus redivivus^ whose tastes in regard to the general surroundings are 

 similar. Mr. Shields says that in Los Angeles county this bird begins 

 building about the first of May, but fresh eggs can be found as late as 

 the last of June ; they are usually four, sometimes five in number. 



The nest is large and bulky, usually placed in scrub-oak or in the 

 thick portions of chapparal ; it is composed of twigs, roots and dry 

 grasses. The color of the eggs is a dark sea-green or blush-green, 

 thickly dotted, spotted and sometimes blotched with clove-brown, 

 chestnut, light buff", dark brown and bluish gray. A set of five eggs 

 measure: 1.06 x. 82, 1.08 x. 72, 1.09 x. 84, i.iox.81, 1.09x80, Ten 

 specimens average i.o8x.8o. 



482. Aphelocoma sieberii arizonas Ridgw. [295.] 



Arizona Jay. 



Hab. Southern New Mexico, Arizona and Northwestern Mexico. 



According to Mr. Scott the Arizona Jay is an abundant species 

 and resident wherever the live-oaks are found on the San Pedro slope 

 of Las Sierras de Santa Catalina, in Southern Arizona, between the 

 altitudes of 3000 and 7000 feet. It is an eminently gregarious and 

 sociable bird; even during the breeding season a number of pairs 

 may be found nesting in the same locality. 



March 16 a nest was found by Mr. Scott apparently completed but 

 containing no eggs ; it was built in a sapling about ten feet from the 

 ground, and was composed of dry rootlets laid very loosely in concen- 

 tric rings ; there was no lining, and the walls of the structure average 

 about three-quarters of an inch in thickness; interior diameter, five 

 inches ; greatest interior depth, an inch and three-quarters — a flat, 

 saucer-like fabric. It was not built in a crotch, but where several 

 small twigs leave the large branch. All other nests found resembled 

 this one. On the 25th the nest was visited again, and the female was 

 sitting, but no eggs had been laid, and further out on the same branch 

 another nest was built. Two other nests were found the same day 

 about one hundred feet away ; in one a female was sitting on two eggs, 

 which was thought at the time to be the full set. The eggs were fresh, 

 and so much like those of the Robin, in color and general appearance, 

 as to be almost indistinguishable from them. These two eggs meas- 

 ured i.i8x,88, 1.13X.86. April i the two nests first mentioned were 

 visited, and although the old bird was sitting on the nest earliest com- 

 pleted, it contained no eggs, but on April 7 Mr. Scott was rewarded by 

 finding five fresh eggs in this nest, identical in appearance with those 



