NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 269 



remarkable bird, embodying the peculiar habits of certain woodpeck- 

 ers and those of some of the jays — wild, restless and noisy, inquisitive 

 and cunning. 



Capt. Bendire found it breeding quite commonly in the mountain- 

 ous regions about Fort Harney, Oregon. April 22, 1876, two nests 

 were found, one containing a young bird, just hatched, and two eggs 

 with the shells chipped ; the other contained three young. Between 

 April 24 and 30 about a dozen nests were observed, all containing three 

 young, each in different stages of development. In the spring of 1877 

 not a single bird was observed where they were found breeding the 

 year before, and their absence was accounted for by the scarcity of the 

 seeds of the pine which constitute their principal food. On April 4, 

 1878, a nest containing three eggs was found, and at this early date in- 

 cubation was far advanced. A set of two eggs, with good-sized em- 

 bryos, was taken April 8. All the nests were placed in pine trees, 

 generally well out on the limbs, and from sixteen to forty feet above 

 the ground. Trees with plenty of branches seemed to be preferred, 

 and the edges of pine timber to the interior of the forests. A nest is 

 described as rather bulky, the base consisting of a platform of small 

 sticks and twigs, mostly of the white sage ; on this the nest proper is 

 placed, which is composed of dry grasses, vegetable fibres, hypnum 

 moss and the fine inner bark of the western juniper, all compactly 

 woven together, making a warm, comfortable structure. The sizes of 

 four eggs, as given by Capt. Bendire, are as follows : 1.22 x .95, 

 1:20 X. 90, 1. 26 X. 95, 1. 30 X. 92, respectively. Their color is a light 

 grayish-green, irregularly spotted and blotched with a deeper shade of 

 gray, chiefly at the larger end. 



In the mountainous region southeast of Fort Garland, Colorado, 

 Capt. B. F. Goss found nests of this species under the same conditions 

 as observed by Capt. Bendire. May 21 a nest was discovered contain- 

 ing young. The nests, at first appearance, according to both observers, 

 looked more like squirrels' nests than anything else, and the birds 

 were close sitters, even allowing themselves to be captured rather than 

 leave their nests. During the breeding season they are perfectly silent. 



492. Cyanocephalus cyanocephalus (Wied.) [285.] 



Pinon Jay. 



Hab. Region between the Rocky Mountain and Sierra Nevada Ranges, from Mexico to British America. 



The region between and including the Rocky Mountains and the 

 eastern slope of the Sierra Nevadas, wherever grows the yellow pine, 

 the pinon and the juniper, the Blue Crow, Maximilian's or Pinon Jay 

 makes its home. A bird combining the form of a crow and the color 



