COllVIDili — Til.'; CROWS. 289 



Jolin Gould, differs ajjain in liavinu; the dorsal patch oi)scuro<l l)y a liluisli 

 wasii; nil unusual aiuuuul oi' hluu ed.uinj, to the throat and jugular I'uatht'rs, 

 and a dull brownish tin.ne to tiio belly, it almost suggests the possibility 

 of a hylirid form Ijetween simtichrasti and ultra mar inn. 



llAitiTS. Tiie California -lay appears to be a I'aeiiic coast species, oc- 

 curring from the Cuhimltia liiver southward to Cape St. l.ucas, l)ut not 

 found in the interior at any considerable distance from tiie coast. Mr. 

 Ifidgway s[>eaks of it as the Valley .Jay of California, having been oiiserved 

 by him in abundance only among the oaks of the Sacramento Valley, the 

 brushwood of the ravines, and the scatteretl pines of tiie foot-hills along the 

 western base of the Sierra Nevada. It was also (pute common, in \\m\, in 

 the vicinity of Carson City, where he found it breeding. Its notes and 

 manners, he adtls, are very similar to those ol' the Woodhouse Jay, l)el(jnging 

 to the wooded regions of the interior, but the siu'ill cries of this species are 

 even more piercing. There is, moreover, somethingln its appearance, caused 

 by the sharp contrast of the briglit l)lue, the light ash, and the jiure white 

 colors, by which it may be distinguished at a glance from the more uniformly 

 colored woodhouse L 



Dr. Heerman speaks of it as freijuenting to seme extent the same districts 

 as Steller's Jay, but also found in greater abundance throughout the val- 

 leys. He likewise describes it as noisy, aha-t, and cunning in its haliits, 

 wild and wary, and yet often seeking the haliitations of man, near wiiich 

 to rear its young, drawn thither by the abundance of food found in such 

 localities. Their uests, he states, are built in a tiuck-leaved bush, or on the 

 lower branches of an oak, at but little height from the ground. Tiu'y are 

 constructed of twigs, and are lined with tine rootlets. The eggs, four in 

 number, are, he says, emerald-greeu iii color, profusely dotted with umber- 

 brown spots. 



Dr. Newberry states that he found the trees and the thickets bordering 

 tlie streams in the valleys the favorite haunts of the Calil'omia Jay. As 

 his party ascended among the evergreen forests of the higher grounds, and 

 passed northeasterly from the Sacramento Valley, these birds were no 

 longer met with, and long before reaching the Oregon line they lost sight 

 of it altogether. Nor did they meet with it again until their return to 

 California. Tiiis Jay, he adds, has all the sprightliness and riistlessness of 

 the family, but is less noi.sy, and its notes are tar more agreeable tlian those 

 of Steller's Jiiy, l>y which it is replaced at the north. 



The Smithsonian Museum lias a specimen of this species obtained on the 

 Columbia by Townseiid, and Mr. Nuttall mentions that early in October, 

 on arriving at the forests of the Columbia, near Fort Vancouver, he met 

 with it in company with Steller's Jay. Ther were breeding in the dark 

 pine woods, and by the loth of June they were I'eeding their fully Hedged 

 young. He also states that they were found as far north as Fraser's IJiver, 

 migrating to the south at the approach of winter. Without questioning the 



v.)i.. II. a; 



