284 CROWS, JAYS, MAGPIES, ETC. 



resumes its trim form before he starts, his tail flips up, and a cone 

 loosened by his foot goes to the ground with a rattling thump. And 

 so he keeps it up, till you know when you are in his neighborhood 

 by the sound of cones hitting the ground. In Idaho, Dr. Merrill 

 found the abundance of the nutcrackers was coincident with that of 

 the crossbills, the presence of both birds being dependent on the food 

 supply. 



On San Francisco Mountain, Dr. Mearns found the birds breeding 

 while the mountains were still covered with snow. 



GENUS CYANOCEPHALUS. 



492. Cyanocephalus cyanocephalus (Wied.). PINON JAY. 



Head not crested ; bill cylindrical ; nostrils exposed ; tail nearly square, 

 much shorter than wings ; feet stout, claws large, strong, and much 

 curved. Adults : almost uniform grayish blue, brightest on head ; throat 

 with white streaks. Young : dull grayish blue, lighter beneath. Length : 

 10.00-11.75, wing 5.70-6.00, tail 4.80-4.85. 



Distribution. Breeds in piflon belt in Upper Sonoran and Transition 

 zones in the plateau regions of western North America from southern 

 British Columbia south to Lower California and northern Mexico, and 

 from the region of the Black Hills west to the Pacific ; casually to Kansas 

 and Nebraska. Migrates from the northern part of its range. 



Nest. Deep, bulky, compact, made of twigs or sagebrush, lined with 

 plant and tree fibers, rootlets, and grass ; placed usually in pifions or juni- 

 pers 5 to 12 feet from the ground. Eggs : 3 to 5, bluish white, sometimes 

 covered with minute specks, at others wreathed around the larger end 

 with coarse spots. 



Food. Juniper berries, pifion nuts, grain, and insects, especially grass- 

 hoppers. 



The pifion jays are so inseparably associated with the pinon 

 pines that you can no more think of them without mental visions of 

 sage-covered foothills spotted with junipers and pinons, than you 

 can think of these dwarf forests of the desert ranges of the Great 

 Basin country without calling up images of straggling flocks of 

 short- tailed birds flapping along with crow -like flight and a weird, 

 crow -like ca-w' ca-w'. 



The nut pine furnishes a great part of their food, and only in the 

 juniper and yellow pine country of eastern Oregon are they found 

 straying far beyond its range. 



They are eminently social birds, sometimes even breeding in colo- 

 nies, and after the breeding season gathering in flocks of several hun- 

 dreds. A flock often seems to have no end, reaching for miles as 

 the birds scatter out and straggle noisily along through the trees. 

 At other times they fly in close bodies, rising and wheeling like 

 blackbirds and settling down together to pick grain in a stubble 

 field. VERNON BAILEY. 



