1912] Swarth : Birds and Mammals from Vancouver Island 49 



showed the absolute indifference to human presence that is so 

 characteristic of the genus. They were not seen until almost 

 within arm's reach, dropping silently about us from the trees 

 like huge, feathery snowflakes. They had, however, a discon- 

 certing way of keeping on about their own business and were 

 not to be distracted by appeals to their curiosity, such as are so 

 successful with Cyanocitta and Aphelocoma. Thus the flocks 

 observed at Great Central Lake and below Mount Arrowsmith 

 were evidently traveling somewhere, and though they suddenly 

 appeared within a few yards of where we were sitting, they dis- 

 appeared, fading away, before we realized it. and were not to 

 be recalled by any amount of "squeaking," such as would bring 

 the Steller jay back, headlong, to investigate. 



Eight specimens were preserved (nos. 15827-15834). two 

 adults and three juvenals from Mount Douglas, July 15, and 

 two adults and one juvenal from Delia Lake, August 21. The 

 adults were all undergoing molt, showing patches of old and 

 new plumage. The three young birds from Mount Douglas are 

 in the juvenal plumage purely ; the one from Delia Lake is in 

 the midst of the post-juvenal molt. 



Compared with a large series from Humboldt Bay, California, 

 the Vancouver Island birds are decidedly larger, with especially 

 larger bills, being nearly the size of P. o. griseus, of the interior. 

 The type locality of P. o. obscurus is Shoalwater Bay, Washing- 

 ton, almost exactly midway between the points where these two 

 series of jays were collected. The measurements of typical 

 obscurus, as given by Ridgway (1904, p. 372) are intermediate 

 between those of the two series at hand, and it is probable 

 that the Vancouver Island birds and the Humboldt Bay birds, 

 taken at the extreme north and south points of the known range 

 of the species, represent the extremes in size. I cannot detect 

 any color differences between the specimens from the two regions. 



Measurements op the Vancouver Island Adults 



No. Sex Wing Tail Culmen Tarsus 



140 132 22 34 



140 131 21 35 



138 136 20 33 



142 135 .... 34 



