380 LIFE HISTOEIES OP NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



1875, and described by him in "The Auk" (Vol. Ill, 1886, pp. 452,453). It is 

 a larger bird than the California Jay, and generally deeper colored. Very little 

 is yet known about the life history of this species. 



Mr. Eli Whitney Blake, jr., who visited this island on two occasions in 1887, 

 states: "It is by far the commonest land bird of the island, and familiar to the 

 verge of impudence. General habits like those of its near relatives on the main- 

 land. Several nests which must have belonged to this species were placed in 

 trees or bushes, between 6 and 30 feet from the ground. They exhibited no 

 marked peculiarity of construction." 1 



The eggs of this species, as far as I am aware, remain still to be described. 

 There is probably but little difference between them and those of the Cali- 

 fornia Jay. 



151. Aphelocoma sieberii arizonae Ridgway. 



ARIZONA JAY. 



Gyanocitta ultramarina var. arizonce Ridgway, Bulletin Essex Institute, V, December, 



1873, 199. 

 Aphelocoma sieberii arizonce Ridgway, Proceedings U. S. National Museum, VIII, 1885, 



355. 



(B 440, G 237, R 295, C 357, U 482.) 



Geographical range: Southern New Mexico and Arizona; south into Sonora and 

 Chihuahua, Mexico. 



The Arizona Jay is a common resident throughout 'the oak belt of southern 

 Arizona and New Mexico which generally fringes the foothills of the mountains 

 and ranges well up among the pines. In suitable localities these Jays are very 

 abundant, especially so along the slopes of the Santa Catalina, Huachuca, Santa 

 Rita, and Chiricahua mountains, in southern Arizona, and the ranges adjacent to 

 the Rio Mimbres, in southern New Mexico. They are rarely seen any distance 

 out on the arid plains; but after the breeding season is over small flocks are 

 sometimes met with among the shrubbery of the few water courses, several 

 miles away from their regular habitat. I repeatedly noticed several of these 

 Jays along the Rillito Creek, near my camp, in 1872-73, in the early spring 

 and up to the middle of May, evidently on a raid after eggs and the voung of 

 smaller birds, which breed in abundance here among the undergrowth in the 

 creek bottoms. On such occasions they were very silent, and their presence 

 was only betrayed by the scoldings they received from the numerous resident 

 bird population. On their own heath they are as noisy as any of our Jays, and 

 apparently far more sociable, a number of pairs frequently breeding in a small 

 oak grove in close proximity to each other, in this respect resembling the Pinon 

 Jay, which also breeds in colonies at times. They do not unite in as large flocks, 

 however, but move about more in small family parties, from half a dozen to 



1 The Auk, Vol. IV, 1887, p. 329. 



