THE PINON JAY 325 



tends from Mount St. Elias to San Francisco Bay. It is 

 also the type of three subspecies, or varieties, found farther 

 east and south. It is the Pacific coast counterpart of our 

 blue-jay — high-crested, barred with black on wings and tail, 

 and with blue as its prevailing color. 



The Pinon Jay 1 (pronounced pin'yone) is a bird well 

 worth knowing. On the Sierra Nevada mountains and ad- 

 jacent plateaus, where the pinon pine, juniper and cedar 

 bravely struggle against the scarcity of water, and only half- 

 clothe the rugged nakedness of Nature, this Jay is a welcome 

 habitant. I think it safe to say that you will find it wherever 

 you find the pinon pine, whose big, husky cones furnish a 

 generous quantity of seeds, called "nuts," which are good 

 for man, and grand food for all the wild creatures that can 

 crack their delicate shell. 



I have never seen the Pinon Jay so numerous that it 

 could be called a "common" bird throughout an extensive 

 region. At the same time, it is a bird of social habit, and 

 given to flocking, quite like our eastern crow. It is really a 

 connecting link between the crows and jays. It has a short, 

 square tail, no crest or "top-knot"; its predominating color 

 is grayish blue, and its cry is a crow-like "caw." 



Clarke's Nut-Cracker 2 is a bird of the western moun- 

 tain tops and canyons, and a companion of the mountain 

 sheep. Wild creatures that love to dwell on high mountains, 

 amid grand scenery, appeal to my sympathies more strongly 

 than some others. To me, this bird recalls pictures of moun- 



1 Cy-an-o-cepk'a-lua cy-an-o-ceph'a-lus. Length, 11 inches. 



2 Nu-ci-frc'ya cu-lum-bi-an'a. Length, IS inches. 



