PERCHING BIRDS 



491. CLARKE'S NUTCRACKER. Nucifraga 

 columbiana. 



Range. Mountains of western North Amer- 

 ica from Mexico to Alaska. 



The Clarke Crow, as this bird is often known, 

 is a common resident in most of its range. The 

 adults are grayish with black wings and cen- 

 tral tail feathers, the tips of the primaries and 

 outer tail feathers being 

 -~i c. white. Their tail is short 



,-'-> ;- ' * \V. and their flight slow and 



^;'" ; . ~ -. ;.* V ; somewhat undulating like 

 '''.. . : .' - . , ' ' that of some of the Wood- 

 \7l-. * - . ^ * . ;'.^ >: peckers. Their food con- 

 sists of anything edible 

 from seeds and larvae in 

 the winter to insects, ber- 

 ries, eggs and young birds 



at other seasons. In the spring they retire to 

 the tops of ranges, nearly to the limit of trees, 

 where they build their large, nests of sticks, 

 twigs, weeds, strips of bark, and fibres matted 

 together so as to form a soft round ball with a 

 deeply cupped interior; the nest is located at 

 from ten to forty feet from the ground in pine trees and the eggs are laid early 

 before the snow begins to leave. They are three in number, grayish in color 

 with a greenish tinge and finely spotted over the whole surface with dark 

 brown and lavender. Size 1.30 x .90. Data. Salt Lake Co., Utah, April 25, 

 1900. Nest placed in pine 40 feet up on a horizontal branch, and not visible 

 from below. The tree was at the upper edge of a pine forest at an altitude of 

 about 3000 feet above Salt Lake City. The nest was discovered by seeing the 

 parent fly into the tree; the next day a nest was found with three young nearly 

 ready to fly. Collector, W. H. Parker. This set of three eggs is in the oological 

 collection of Mr. C. W. Crandall. 



Grayish blue 



Clarke's Nutcracker 



492. PINON JAY. Cyanocephalus cyanocephalus. 



Bluish white 



Range. Western United States between the Rockies 

 and Sierra Nevadas, and from southern British Colum- 

 bia to Arizona. 



This Crow-like Jay has a nearly uniform bluish plum- 

 age, and is found abundantly in the pine belts of its 

 range. Their habits are similar to those of the Clarke 

 Crow and the nests are similarly built at lower eleva- 

 tions in pines or junipers. During April or May they lay 

 from three to five eggs of a bluish white color specked 

 and spotted with brown. Size 1.20 x .85. 



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