778 The Sparrow-like Birds 



arid region, is the Blue Crow, Pinon, or Maximilian's Jay (Cyanocephalus cyano- 

 cephalus}. It is a small bird, ten inches long, of a nearly uniform dull grayish 

 blue color, somewhat paler on the abdomen and darker on the head and neck, 

 where it is an intense blue. The tail is short and nearly even, the wings long and 

 pointed, and the bill long and depressed, with small, oval, entirely exposed 

 nostrils. Of its habits, Coues says: "Notwithstanding its essentially corvine 

 form, the habits of this bird, like its colors, are rather those of Jays. It is a gar- 

 rulous and vociferous creature, of variously and curiously modulated chattering 

 notes when at ease, and of extremely loud, harsh cries when in fear or anger. 

 Like Jays, it is a restless, impetuous bird, as if it were of an unbalanced, ever 

 frivolous mind, its turbulent presence contrasting strangely with the poised 

 and somewhat sedate demeanor of the larger black Corvi. With these last, 

 however, it shares a strong character, its attitudes when on the ground, to which 

 it habitually descends, being Crow-like; and its gait and easy walk or run differ- 

 ing entirely from the hopping progression of the Jays. It shares a shy and 

 watchful disposition with its relatives on both sides of the family ; its flight is 

 most nearly like that of the Clarke's Crow. It is highly gregarious in the strict 

 sense of the term." It frequents especially the pinon-covered foot-hills of the 

 lower ranges and is very erratic in its movements, being present in thousands 

 one day and entirely absent the next. It subsists largely on the nutritious seeds 

 of the pinon pine (Pinus edulis), but during the summer it also feeds on berries 

 and seeds of various kinds as well as insects, especially grasshoppers. It nests 

 somewhat in colonies, placing the large, deeply cup-shaped nest in the forks 

 or on horizontal limbs of the pinon, at heights varying from five to fifteen feet 

 from the ground. The four or five eggs are bluish white minutely specked 

 and blotched with brown. 



Magpies. On the border line between the- Crows and Jays, but perhaps 

 best associated with the latter, are the Magpies (Pica), of which^here are several 

 species occurring in both the Old and New Worlds. They are larger birds than 

 the last, with a long and much-graduated tail, covered nostrils, partially naked 

 orbits, and rounded wings in which the outermost primary is falcate. The 

 coloration is mainly black and white in large, conspicuously contrasted areas, 

 the wings being metallic greenish blue varied with greenish or violet, while the 

 tail is rich metallic green varied with bronze, purple, and violet near the end, 

 the shoulders, abdomen, sides, and flanks being pure white. The American 

 Magpie (P. pica hudsonia), which is deemed but a subspecies of an Old World 

 form, is a striking bird some twenty inches in length, of which, however, the tail 

 makes up rather more than half; it occurs in the Western States from Arizona 

 and New Mexico to Alaska. It frequents the treeless or more sparsely wooded 

 districts, being partial to the vicinity of streams and brushy valleys, but often 

 wanders into the pine groves on hillsides. While not exactly gregarious, it is 

 sociable and usually seen in small, loose parties of from five or six to a dozen 

 or more, and enjoys but weak powers of flight, being particularly bothered by 

 high winds. It is very noisy, more or less quarrelsome, and one of the most 

 mischievous and thieving of birds, nothing seeming to delight it better than 



