260 NESTS AND EGGS OF 



were quite bulky, loosely made of sticks, stems of weeds, and lined 

 with fibrous rootlets and grasses ; and as they were all built at or near 

 the opening, the tell-tale sticks projected, and made the finding of the 

 nest not difficult. 



Col. Goss gives the color of the eggs as light blue, speckled and 

 spotted with dark brown, rather thickest at large end, and the meas- 

 urements of two sets as follows : one taken May 19, i.2ox .87, i.aox. 88, 

 I.2IX.88; May 21, i.2ix.88, i.i5x.86, I.I9X.86, i.i6x.85. Mr. W. O. 

 Bmerson informs me that the nests in the vicinity of Haywards, Cali- 

 fornia, are placed in oaks, redwood and other tall trees.* Mr. Norris has 

 a set of three eggs, collected by Mr. A. M. Ingersoll, May 19, 1888, at 

 Julian, California. The nest was inside of an immense oak stub, about 

 fifteen feet from the ground, and the eggs were far advanced in incu- 

 bation. They are of a light grayish-blue, speckled and spotted with 

 burnt umber. Their sizes are : i.26x.86, i.3ox.85, i.2ix.85. 



478. Cyanocitta stelleri macrolopha (BAIRD.) 



Long-crested Jay. 



Hab. Rocky Mountain region, especially southerly, from Utah, Arizona and New Mexico north to 

 Southern Wyoming. 



A common bird in the southern Rocky Mountain region. In some 

 portions of the pine districts of Arizona the birds are permanent resi- 

 dents. They are mated by the latter part of April, and nests with eggs 

 may be found in May. It is a very numerous species in Northern New 

 Mexico and Colorado, where it is a constant resident. Large, noisy 

 troops of this species are to be found roving about during the winter 

 months. Their notes at times are said to resemble those of the Blue 

 Jay. Mr. Dille states that in Colorado the nest of the Long-crested Jay 

 is built in trees or bushes, but generally artfully concealed in a bunch 

 of rubbish at the top of a pine or spruce. It is rather large and coarse, 

 made of small sticks and weed-stalks, with little or no lining. 



Nests with eggs have been found all through June. The eggs, 

 Mr. Dille says, are invariably five in number, of a light green, with 

 fine markings of dark olive-brown and lighter cloudings of purplish or 



* A strange departure from the usual habits of Jays is noted of the Blue-fronted Jay by Mr. Bryant. 

 In Placer county, California, the birds had persisted in building within the snow-sheds in spite of the noise 

 and smoke of passing trains. " The destruction of their nests by the men employed on the water train 

 which makes two trips a week through the sheds during the summer, sprinkling the woodwork and tearing 

 down the nests of Jays and Robins with a hook attached to a pole, seemed not to discourage them. So accus- 

 tomed do the Jays become to the passing of trains, that they will often remain on their nests undisturbed. In 

 one season more than two hundred nests of Jays and Robins were destroyed, so the train men say, between 

 Cisco and Summit, a distance of thirteen miles. Some of the nests were but partially built, others contained 

 eggs, these latter ones having probably been overlooked on previous trips. The nesting of the Jays within 

 the snow-sheds is, so Mr. Ingersoll supposes, to avoid the persecution of squirrels. None, he thinks, how- 

 ever, succeed in rearing a brood, for of more than thirty nests which he found, nearly all were uncompleted." 

 "Unusual Nesting Sites," No. II. 



