THE BIRDS OF WAYNE COUNTY. 



299 



FAMILY CORVID^E. CROWS, JAYS, MAGPIES, ETC. 



SUBFAMILY GARRULIN/E. MAGPIES AND JAYS. 



GENUS CYANOCITTA STRICKLAND. 



97. Cyanocitta cristata (LINN.). 

 Blue Jay. 



An abundant resident, but especially numerous during fall and early spring. 



Nesting is begun sometimes by April 10, but the height of the breeding season 

 is in May. In the matter of nesting sites a preference seems to be shown for the 

 thorn bushes (Cratcegus), though various other situations are also chosen. The nest 

 is usually placed not over fifteen feet from the ground, though in one instance the 

 distance was forty-two feet. The eggs are four or five in number, and are sometimes 

 in varying stages of incubation. 



A set of five eggs, taken in this locality on May i, 1890, seems sufficiently differ- 

 ent from the usual type of coloration to merit a description. '1 he ground color is a 

 rich cream buff, with small markings of vandyke brown, tawny olive, broccoli brown, 

 clay color, wood brown, drab, dull lavender and ecru drab; these markings occurring 

 most numerously at the larger ends of the eggs. These eggs measure respectively : 

 i.i6x.78, i.o8x.79, i. it x.yg, i.i6x.79, i.n x-77. 



All the nests (nine in number) which have been examined by the writer have re- 

 vealed the employment of more or less mud in their construction. Many of them 

 were cupped and plastered with this material to as great an extent as is characteristic 

 of the nest of the Robin. If this use of mud by the Blue Jay is of general occur- 

 rence, it would seem somewhat strange that more mention has not been made of the 

 fact in the literature of the subject. The only notice of such a habit, so far as the 

 present writer has been able to ascertain, is to be found in Baird, Brewer and Ridg- 

 way's History of North American Land Birds, Volume II, page 275 ; and in Thos. 

 G. Gentry's Life Histories of the Birds of Eastern Pennsylvania, Volume II, page 

 21. The same sentence occurs in both these works, and is as follows: 



" In Texas according to Dr. Lincecum the nest is built of mud, which is rarely if 

 -ever utilized in more northern localities." 



The measurements of eight nests are herewith given : 



