Clark's Crows and Oregon Jays on Mount Hood 



CLARK S CROW AND OREGON JAY 

 Photographed from nature by Florence A. Merriam 



BY FLORENCE A. MERRIAM 



(Coiicli(dcd from page 4S) 



ALTHOUGH the Nut- 

 , crackers and Jays were 

 masters of the feast, 

 they did not altogether mo- 

 nopolize it. Ground squirrels 

 with golden brown heads and 

 striped backs would look out 

 at me from the rocks, and 

 pretty little striped - nosed 

 chipmunks would pick up 

 choice morsels and climb nim- 

 bly back along the cliff with 

 them. Juncos often dropped 

 in, pecked indifferently at the crumbs, slipped off the tin cans they 

 tried to perch on, and flew off. Two Lewis' Woodpeckers stopped 

 one day and, flying down, clung awkwardly to the side of the cliff, 

 as if vaguely wanting to join in the proceedings, but not know- 

 ing how, finally left. A single Steller's Jay hung around the out- 

 skirts in the same way, the first day I was there. He hopped 

 about, looked this way and that, and pecked at the food perfunc- 

 torily, as if it was new to his palate and not quite to his mind, 

 acting altogether as if he realized that something was going on he 

 ought to be enjoying, though he really didn't see just where the 

 fun came in. Unlike the Woodpeckers, however, he was determined 

 to improve his opportunities, and cultivated his appetite so success- 

 fully that on the last day when I visited the dining-room he and a 

 comrade were working away, apparently enjoying the viands as much 

 as their neighbors. 



But the Crows and Oregon Jays were the regular habitues of the 

 place. When resting from his labors a solitar}' Crow would often 

 perch on the tip of a bare spar on the crest of the cliff, apparently 

 quite satisfied with his own society, but I never saw a Jay there, and 

 one whom I did see separated from his band for a moment fairly- 

 made the welkin ring with shouts for his clan. Several Clark's Crows 

 were often at the table with the Jays, but while I never saw a Crow 

 disturb a Jay, a Crow would often fly with animation at a newcoming 

 fellow Crow. This was a surprise to me, for on Mt. Shasta I had 

 seen the Nutcrackers hunting in bands quite as the Jays did here. 

 But on the wide lava slopes of Shasta there were, doubtless, grass- 



(72) 



