42 PACIFIC COAST AVIFAUNA [No. i. 



death. They were persistent robbers of the bait, but I was always sorry to see 

 them destroyed especially around our winter home. During September and Octo- 

 ber, in my tramps across the tundras lying along the base of the Jade Mountains, I 

 frequently met wnth two or three jays far out on the plains a mile or more from 

 timber, feeding on blue-berries. They were never seen singly, and sometimes as 

 many as five were within a short distance of one another on the ground, hopping 

 among the low shrubs, or flitting from hummock to hummock. In the morning 

 and evening one after another in far-separated succession were to be seen flying, 

 in lengthy undulations, between the woods and some distant blue-berry patch. 

 Later, in the coldest days of mid-winter, I fould them in the dense willow thickets. 

 But they were then very wary and quiet. The notes of the Alaskan Jay are 

 quite varied, and scarcely to be described intelligibly. There is a low warbling 

 call-note, and a loud harsh cry; and sometimes a very pleasing, softly -modulated 

 song, rambling along for some length, which one would rather credit to a thrush. 

 Toward spring the jays became remarkably reclusive, and their visits around camp 

 were less and less frequent. I suspected that by the middle of March they would 

 nest, and I consequently spent much time in fruitless search. On the 20th of 

 March, while out snovz-shoeing across the vallej-, I happened to see a pair of jays 

 flying toward a tract of spruces, and, as had become almost habitual with me 

 under such incentive, I followed them up. I did not see the birds for some time, 

 until finally I saw a jay with a large bunch of white down in its bill flying back 

 along the timber. The other bird was accompanying it, following a little behind. I 

 lost sight of them among the distant trees, but by following the general course of 

 their flight, and peering into all the thicker spruces, I chanced to discover the nest. 

 It was ten feet above the snow in a dense young spruce growing among a clump 

 of taller ones on a knoll. It was as yet a flimsy affair consisting of dry spruce twigs, 

 with bits of down and feathers showing through from beneath. Although I did 

 not disturb the nest in the least, a visit two weeks later found it covered with 

 snow and apparently deserted. On April loth, among ten jays, secured about 

 twenty miles down the Kowak from our winter camp, was one female which con- 

 tained in the oviduct a full-sized, though unshelled, egg. Not until May 13th, 

 however, did I finally find an occupied jay's nest, and its discovery then was bj' 

 mere accident. It was twelve feet up in a small spruce amongst a clump of larger 

 ones on a low ridge. There w^ere no "tell-tale sticks and twigs on the snow be- 

 neath," as Nelson notes, and in fact nothing to indicate its location. The nest 

 rested on several horizontal or slightly drooping branches against the south side 

 of the main trunk. The foliage around it was moderately dense, so that it could 

 be seen from the ground, though only as an indistinct dark spot. The bird was 

 sitting on the nest when I discovered it. Her head and tail appeared conspicu- 

 ously over the edge of the nest, and she remained on until I had climbed up with- 

 in an arm's length of her. She then left the nest and silently flew to a near-by 

 tree where she was joined b\' her mate. They both remained in the vicinity, but 

 ostensibly paid little attention to me. They followed each other about playfully, 

 uttering low conversational notes. The male would try to approach the female, 

 vibrating his wings and striking various coquettish attitudes, but the latter would 

 quickly turn on him, as if to repel his advances at such a serious time. Then 

 both birds would pause for a moment within six inches of each other, with their 

 beaks wide open, and mayhap a snap or two. The nest proper was built on a 



