THE PINON JAY, 425 



evidently on their return to their breeding grounds farther north, and by again 

 getting in front of them I secured several fine males whose testes were but 

 slightly enlarged. These birds are said to breed in large numbers in the 

 juniper groves near the eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountains, on the head 

 waters of the Des Clu^tes River, Oregon. I have also seen them in the Yakima 

 Valley, near old Fort Simcoe, in central Washington, in June, 1881, in an oak 

 opening, where they were quite numerous. Their center of abundance, how- 

 ever, is in the pinon or nut-pine belt, which does not extend north of latitude 

 40°, if so far, and wherever these trees are found in large numbers the Pinon 

 Jay can likewise be looked for with confidence. 



Mr. F. Stephens writes me that he saw a mixed flock of this species and 

 Clarke's Nutcrackers within 20 miles of the line of Lower California. 



Mr. L. Belding found them abundant in the pifions between Campo and 

 Hansen's, Lower California, in May, 1884; while Mr. A. W. Anthony reports 

 them abundant on the San Pedro Martir Mountains, in the same State, at 

 altitudes of from 7,000 to 11,000 feet.^ 



On the eastern sloj)es of the Rocky Mountains this species is much rarer 

 than on the western border, but it has been found in northwestern Montana, on 

 Marias River, and has even been recorded from eastern Kansas and Nebraska, 

 where, however, it can only be considered a straggler. 



The first nests and eggs of this species were found by Mr. Charles E. Aiken, 

 near Colorado Springs, Colorado, on May 13, 1874, where he noticed four other 

 nests at the same time; in all of these the young had just hatched. The set 

 found by him contained five eggs, in which incubation was well advanced; two 

 of these eggs he kindly gave me, and they are now in the United States National 

 Museum collection. The first naturalist, however, Avho observed the nests and 

 young of this species was Mr. Robert Ridgway, who found a colony nesting in 

 a low range of pinon-covered hills in the vicinity of Carson City, Nevada, on 

 April 21, 1868. 



Mr. H. C. Parker, of Carson City, took two sets of eggs of this species 

 in the same locality, on April 5, 1878, where Mr. Ridgway observed them ten 

 years previously, and one of these is now in the United States National 

 Museum collection. Subsequentl}^ he found another colony of these birds in 

 another portion of the same range of hills, where he states they were breeding 

 by thousands. 



The late Capt. B. F. Goss also found this species breeding in the vicinity of 

 Fort Garland, Colorado, at an altitude of about 8,600 feet, during the first two 

 weeks in May, 1879, and took nine sets of their eggs, one of which is now 

 before me. Their eggs were also taken in northern New Mexico at about the 

 same time. 



Their call notes are quite variable ; some of them are almost as harsh as 

 the "chaar" of the Clarke's Nutcracker, others partake much of the gabble 

 of the Magpie, and still others resemble more those of the Jays. A shrill, queru- 



' Proceedings of California Academy of Sciences, Vol. II, 1889, pp. 293, 294. 



