AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 35 



BIRDS OF THE PACIFIC SLOPE. 



The Mountain Blue-bird of the Pacific slope in size and habits does not 

 differ in the least from its relatives of Canada and the Atlantic seaboard^ 

 but^ in his dress^ the male differs quite noticeably. Instead of having a 

 brown throat and breast, his throat is as blue as his back, having almost a 

 greenish shade, and the breast and belly are only a little lighter in color, 

 having no approach towards brown. The rest of his dress is the same as 

 that of his eastern cousin. The female is very similar in color to one of the 

 east, but is a little nearer the shade of the Turtle-dove. 



During the past spring I had an excellent opportunity to observe the con- 

 duct -of a pair of Blue-birds very closely^ for they came early and built a 

 nest in a corner of an unfinished porch that had not been ceiled overhead. 

 During the progress of their work thej^ were watched very closely by a 

 favorite house cat that had too much of the native instinct of its race to be 

 broken of it, and after the nest was completed and four eggs were laid, the 

 female was caught and killed. The mate then disappeared, and in preparing 

 to ceil the porch, the nest was taken out, but before the work could be com- 

 pleted, he returned with a second wife, and with much twittering tried to get 

 her to assist in rebuilding the nest. But she seemed to feel that she had been 

 deceived, and said as plainly as looks could say: "You stated to me what was 

 false. You told me there was a nest already built with four eggs in it, while 

 in fact there is nothing." When she would go off and perch upon some- 

 thing with an air of cold indifference, he would collect materials for the nest, 

 and try to rebuild it. His work was soon stopped, however, by the place be- 

 ing ceiled up. Meanwhile, the female had selected a corner under the raf- 

 ters of another unfinished porch, much like that chosen by her predecessor, 

 and had commenced to build, but this also had to be torn out, and the place 

 shut up. This cut off all suitable places for building about the house, and 

 because of the danger they were in on account of the cat, I almost hoped 

 they would seek some safer locality, but so persistent were they in their 

 search for some place about the house that would answer, that I took com- 

 passion upon them, made a box and put it up in a safe place near where they 

 tried to build the second time. So tame were they that within an hour after 

 the box was in place, they were happily building again, and soon had a nest 

 completed. Four eggs were deposited and in due time four little birds ap- 

 peared. With much watchful care the parents were protected until the 

 young ones were fully fledged, when one sunny morning they flew away to 

 a great cherry orchard, where there was ample shade and an abundance of 

 delicious food. 



The Jay of the coast country differs even more from his eastern cousin 

 than the Blue-bird. He is larger, much darker in color, and in conduct is 



