Nutcrackers 777 



Clarke's Crow, from the fact that it was first brought back from the Columbia 

 River region by the celebrated Lewis and Clarke expedition made across the 

 continent in the early part of the last century. The Clarke's Crow is a very 

 characteristic and striking bird of the Rocky Mountain region, attaining a 

 length of twelve or thirteen inches, and having the plumage a uniform ash- 

 gray, becoming white on the fore part of the head, while the wings and two 

 middle tail-feathers are glossy black, the secondaries being broadly tipped 

 with white, and the tail, except the middle feathers, mainly white. The habits 

 of this bird are strongly suggested by a former generic name (Picicoruus), which 

 implies a compound of Woodpecker and Crow, for such it seems to be, more 

 than one collector imagining he had secured a new and strange Woodpecker 

 until he held one in hand for the first time. Thus it not infrequently alights 

 on a dead limb and hammers it precisely as a Woodpecker does, the rattle 

 being audible for a great distance, and when flying from tree to tree they often 

 swing themselves in the same undulating manner. On the other hand, their 

 corvine tendencies are exhibited in the extreme watchfulness and loud, dis- 

 cordant notes. Except perhaps in the more northern parts of its range, they 

 are very irregular residents, their coming and going depending apparently upon 

 the food supply. They are decidedly gregarious, except during the breeding 

 season, going about in noisy parties of from six to a dozen up to fifty or more, 

 their ordinary flight being rapid, straight, and steady. Although quite omnivo- 

 rous in their tastes, their winter food consists very largely of the seeds of various 

 coniferous trees, especially pines, but at other times they feed on berries, in- 

 sects, grasshoppers, and crickets, and they occasionally visit the slaughter- 

 houses to feed on the offal, and in winter often come about the clearings of 

 settlers where little that is edible appears to come amiss. I once shot one in 

 the mountains of Montana that had no less than eighty-two pine seeds in its 

 gullet. Ordinarily they are very shy and difficult of approach, often alighting 

 on a dead limb or tree-top, from which point they watch carefully in all direc- 

 tions for possible enemies, and are ever ready with their loud, harsh chaar, 

 cliaar, to warn companions of danger. They do not very often descend to the 

 ground, though when they do they walk easily and firmly like a Crow. They 

 nest early, often long before the snow has left the ground, retiring to the higher 

 ranges and building a compact, deeply cup-shaped nest of sticks, weeds, strips 

 of bark and soft fibers, placing it well concealed in a coniferous tree. The three 

 or four eggs are grayish, finely spotted with dark brown and lavender. The 

 habits of the European Nutcracker (N. caryocatactes] are very similar to those 

 of the American species, except perhaps that it is an even greater wanderer, 

 often but very irregularly straggling far outside its usual range. For many 

 years their nesting habits were unknown, but since it was discovered that they 

 breed very early, at which time they are silent, the nests and eggs have been 

 found in many places, and do not differ greatly from those already described. 



Pinon Jay. Another rather curious bird, intermediate in some respects 

 between the Crows and Jays, which enjpys nearly the same distribution as 

 Clarke's Crow, but mostly confined to the lower slopes of the mountains of the 



