COUVFDvE-TllE CROWS. 257 



SO nearly to tlie Woodpuukers as to bu usually known to tliu suttler.s as a 

 bird of tliat tribo. 



He i'urtlier remarks that its llij,'lit much resembles that of Milaacrpca ior- 

 qmittis, and, as it alij^hts i nn the top of a tall dead tree, ami sits quietly 

 {i;azin<,' around, it iiiij,dit readily be mistaken for one of the Pivida: He 

 describes them as being very active in their movements, now ilying from a 

 tree to the ground to pick up some article of food, now exannning the exca- 

 vations of an old dead stump or snag, or, on being ai)i)roached, as Ilying u]> 

 and alighting upon tlie extreme sunnnit of a tree, out of gunsliot. It is a 

 very noisy bird, and its notes are harsh and discordant, th(jugh less so than 

 are those of tiie Steller's Jay, which is generally seen in the same localities. 

 Its usual note is a har.sh guttural cliiirr-r/nin; generally uttered when two or 

 more alight on the same tree. Occasionally an individual takes u]) a ]iecu- 

 liar I'iping strain, which is immediately answered by all the others in the 

 neighborhood, thus awakening the echoes of tlie surrttunding solitude with 

 their discordant cries. In regard to its nest he can give no positive infor- 

 mation, but tliinks that they breed in cavities in old dead trees and stumps, 

 having found a nest in such a situation in the East Humboldt Mountains, 

 which he thinks belonged to a i)air of these birds which were Hying about, 

 and seen to enter this cavity. 



l>r. Newberry, in his Report on the zoology of his route, states that he 

 found this si)ccies rather common along a large jiortion of it, and was tlius 

 enabled to study its liabits at leisure. He found it strictly contined to the 

 highlands and mountains, never, where lie saw it, descending to a lower 

 altitude than about lour thousand feet. On the other hand, while crossing 

 tlie Cascade Mountains at the line of perpetual snow, seven thousand feet 

 above the sea-level, he hiis seen this bird, in c-upany with the Mclniwrpfs 

 to7'(jHatus, Hying over the snow-covered peaks three thousand feet above 

 him. 



He first met with this bird on the spur of the Sierra Nevada, near Las- 

 sen's l«utte, and found u constantly, when in high and timbered regions, 

 from there to the Cohnnbifi. He descril)es its habits as a compound, in 

 abo\it ecjual parts of those of the Jays and of the Woodpeckers. Its cry 

 he speaks of as particularly harsh and disagreeable, something like tliat of 

 Steller's Jay, but louder and more discordant. It seems to condiine tlie 

 shrewdness with all tlie curiosity of the Jays and Crows, and from its 

 shyness is a very dillicult bird to shoot, the Doctor never being able to 

 get directly within killing distance of one of them, but only olitaining 

 specimens by concealing himself and waiting for them to approach him. 

 Apparently from excess of caution, it almost invariably alights on a dry 

 tree. Even when going to a living tree for its food, it always iiies first into 

 a dry one, if one is near, to reconnoitre, and, if the coast is clear, it begins 

 to feeil. At the first movement of an intru<ler, without uttering a note, it 

 puts a safe distance between itself and its enemy. 



vol,. II. 33 



