THE BLUE-FEONTED JAY. 365 



142. Cyanocitta stelleri frontalis (Ridgway). 



BLUE-FRONTED JAY. 



Cyanura stelleri var. frontalis Ridgway, American Journal of Sciences and Arts, 3d ser 



V, Jan., 1873, 41. 

 Cyanocitta stelleri var. frontalis Boucard, Catalogue Aves, 1876, 279. 

 (B — , C 235&, E 290a, C 353, U 478a.) 



Geographical range: Western North America; from northern Lower California 

 north through the coast ranges of California and Oregon to northwestern Washington 

 (and southern British Columbia ?); east to both slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, in 

 California and Nevada; apparently not present in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon and 

 Washington. 



The range of the Blue-fronted Jay, also known as the "Sierra Jay" and 

 "California Mountain Jay," has recently been extended considerably to the 

 northward by Mr. R. H. Lawrence, who found it not at all rare in western Wash- 

 ington, in the Puget Sound region, and it is presumable, therefore, that it is also 

 found throughout the coast ranges of Oregon, occupying here the same ground 

 as the preceding species. 



No typical specimens of this race from any portion of Oregon have, to my 

 knowledge, been brought to the notice of ornithologists. It undoubtedly inter- 

 grades with Steller's Jay in northern California and southern Oregon, as at Fort 

 Klamath, for instance, where I have found intermediates between these races. 

 The majority of the birds found there, however, come nearer to Cyanocitta stelleri 

 than to the present race. 



Mr. L. Belding found the Blue-fronted Jay in the northern parts of the 

 Peninsula of Lower California, at Valle Palmas, Vallecitas, and Guadalupe Can- 

 yon, in May, 1885. x 



It reaches its eastern limits on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevadas, 

 where it is common in places up to 9,500 feet. Dr. C. Hart Merriam's parties 

 failed to observe it in any of the desert ranges east of these mountains during 

 their extended explorations of the Death Valley country in the summer of 1891. 



While essentially a bird of the coniferous forests and rarely found any 

 distance away from these, excepting in winter when small parties visit occasion- 

 ally the more open regions at the base of the foothills, in some parts of California 

 it is more or less a resident of the oak belt as well. 



Mr. R. H. Beck writes me: "It is a common resident of the Santa Clara 

 Valley, California, as well as of the coast ranges, from Santa Cruz to 40 miles 

 below Monterey, wherever I have been. I have found about a dozen of their 

 nests, placed in oaks, buckeye, laurel, and holly bushes, at various distances 

 ranging from 7 to 40 feet from the ground. They were always found close to the 

 water. These birds are close sitters, and I have seen them remain on the nest 

 until I nearly touched them, when they would fly off a short distance, screaming 

 and calling for their mates, who soon appeared and helped to make a louder 



1 Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, 2d series, Vol. II, 1889, p. 293 



