412 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 
did not disturb the nest in the least, a visit two weeks later found it 
covered with snow and apparently deserted. On April roth, among 
ten jays, secured about twenty miles down the Kowak from our 
winter camp, was one female, which contained in the oviduct, a 
full-sized though unshelled, egg. Not until May 13th, however, did 
I finally find an occupied jay’s nest, and its discovery then was by 
mere accident. It was twelve feet up in a small spruce amongst 
a clump of larger ones on a low ridge. There were no “tell-tale 
sticks and twigs on the snow beneath,’ as Nelson notes, and in 
fact nothing to indicate its location. The nest rested on several 
horizontal or slightly drooping branches against the south side of 
the main trunk. The foliage around it was moderately dense, so 
that it could be seen from the ground, though only as an indistinct 
dark spot. The bird was sitting on her nest when I discovered it. 
Her head and tail appeared conspicuously over the edge of the 
nest, and she remained on until I had climbed up within an arm’s 
length of her. She then left the nest and silently flew to a near-by 
tree where she was joined by her mate. They both remained in 
the vicinity, but ostensibly paid little attention to me. They 
followed each other about playfully, uttering low conversational 
notes. The male would try to approach the female, vibrating his. 
wings and striking various coquettish attitudes, but the latter would 
quickly turn upon him, as if to repel his advances at such a serious. 
time. Then both birds would pause for a moment within six inches 
of each other, with their beaks wide open, and mayhap a snap or 
two. The nest proper was built on a loose foundation of slender 
spruce twigs. The walls and bottom consisted of a closely felted 
mass of black hair-like lichen, many short bits of spruce twigs, 
feathers of ptarmigan,‘and hawk owls, strips of a fibrous bark and a 
few grasses. The interior is lined with the softest and finest grained 
material. The whole fabric is of such a quality as to accomplish 
the greatest conservation of warmth, which certainly must be 
necessary where incubation is carried on in below zero weather. 
(Joseph Grinnell.) 
484e. Labrador Jay. 
Pertsoreus canadensis nigricaptillus RipGw. 1882. 
Peninsula of Labrador, north to Davis strait; island of New- 
foundland. (Ridgway.) Locally common in northeastern Labrador 
