420 LIFE HISTOEIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



They also eat the large, wingless black crickets (Anabus simplex), which are 

 exceedingly abundant and destructive wherever found, overrunning large sections 

 of country and devouring everything green and edible in their way. I have seen 

 flocks of these birds scattered over the sagebrush-covered mesas (table-lands) 

 forming the southern foothills of the Blue Mountains, in Oregon, industriously 

 engaged in catching these repulsive-looking insects and apparently eating them 

 with a relish. They seemed to be especially noisy at such times, calling each 

 other constantly and having a jolly good time generally. While usually rather 

 shy and not readily approachable within gunshot, I have occasionally seen a few 

 much bolder and more inquisitive than the rest, alighting among my chickens in 

 the back yard, and feeding with them. They spend considerable time on the 

 ground in search of food, hopping about from place to place like Jays, looking 

 here and there for a choice morsel. They will hang to the bark of a tree pre- 

 cisely like a Woodpecker in search of grubs, and again to the under side of a 

 pine cone, like a Crossbill, and apparently extract the seeds with equal dexterity. 

 Their call notes are harsh and far-reaching, and consist mainly of a loud, rasping 

 "chaar, chaar," which can be heard for a long distance, and when a number are 

 together the noise made by them becomes rather disagreeable. They do not 

 appear to destroy the eggs or young of smaller birds, but do far more good than 

 harm, and on this account deserve protection. 



The breeding season, considering the character of the country frequented 

 by these birds, commences very early, and this accounts for the few nests which 

 have as yet found their way into our oological collections. Mr. Denis Gale 

 found a nest of this species, containing three fresh eggs, in Boulder County, 

 Colorado, March 5, 1888, at an altitude of about 8,500 feet, when the mountain 

 sides were still covered with deep snow. A second nest, also containing three 

 fresh eggs, was found by him on April 16, 1889, and in this case he had noticed 

 the birds building fully a month previous. 1 



Capt. B. F. Gross also found Clarke's Nutcracker breeding in the vicinity 

 of Fort Garland, Colorado, where he obtained a nest with young birds on May 

 21, 1879. 



I am not aware of any nests and eggs of this interesting species having been 

 taken, excepting the two found by Mr. Gale and those secured by myself near 

 Camp Harney, Oregon, April, 1876 and 1878. I obtained the first evidence 

 of their breeding in that vicinity on May 5, 1875, when I found several young 

 birds, but a few days out of the nest and not yet able to fly well ; they were sit- 

 ting on the branches of a large juniper tree in Rattlesnake Creek Canyon, about 

 3 miles north of the Post. As this tree happened to contain a cavity which 

 evidently had been used by some bird as a nesting site in previous years, I 

 came to the erroneous conclusion that Clarke's Nutcracker nested in holes, 

 which caused me to examine many of them without results. In March, 1876, 

 I recommenced what looked like an almost fruitless search, in which I had 



1 For more detailed accounts of these two uests see my articles in The Auk (Vol. VI, 1889, pp. 226-236, 

 and Vol. VII, 1890, p. 92). 



