160 



THE OOLOGIST 



The Rocky Mountain Jay. 



I would like to know through the. 

 readers of the Oologist if there is any 

 one who has ever found a nest or eggs 

 of the Rocky Mountain Jay. I have 

 seen many of the birds in different 

 parts of this state but always at an 

 elevation of from 10 to 12 thousand 

 feet, and they seem most common at 

 timber line which ranges about 11,000 

 feet altitude, but I have never heard 

 of anyone finding either nest or eggs. 

 They are supposed to nest very early 

 in the season, that is in February or 

 March while the snow is still deep in 

 the mountains and I noticed last Janu- 

 ary an article in the Denver Rocky 

 Mountain News about the Rocky 

 Mountain Jay. It seems the State 

 Museum at Denver wanted a nest and 

 eggs of this common bird very badly 

 and offered a reward for the same, 

 and also had instructed about 200 

 "lumber jacks" and forest rangers to 

 be on the lookout for nest and eggs 

 but I think they are still "looking" for 

 I have never heard of the discovery 

 of one. I have often wondered if the 

 eggs of this bird have ever been found, 

 as I have never heard of a set in any 

 collection, and have never heard of a 

 person who knows a single thing in 

 regard to the nesting of this bird. The 

 aggs are priced at $6.00 in the Lattin- 

 Shorts price list which is cheap, but 

 where are the eggs? Yet the eggs of 

 the Swallow-tailed Kite which are in 

 many collections all over the country 

 are priced at $30.00 which is some 

 difference in price, and if these eggs 

 are priced according to their rarity, I 

 can't see the joke. The Rocky Moun- 

 tain Jay in all probability builds its 

 nest in the dark tops of tall spruce 

 trees in the dark thick forests, high 

 in the mountains near timber line, and 

 the only way to locate the nest would 

 be to see the bird fly to the tree while 

 in the act of building the nest. I hope 



to hear of some one some day that 

 has located a nest. 



Robert F. Backus, 

 Canon City, Colo. 



THE BIRD MAGAZINES 



Dwight's Review of the Juncoes 



This brochure which has heretofore 

 been noticed in these columns as a 

 proposed place of work by Dr. Dwight 

 and which in our judgment begins at 

 last to point toward the proper 

 direction in the classification of birds, 

 comes in for a three-page review by 

 Whitmore Stone, editor of the Auk in 

 the October 1918 number, a careful 

 reading of which leaves the writer in 

 doubt as to whether the Reviewer or 

 whether Dr. Dwight made the classi- 

 fication or not. 



This same paper is the subject of an 

 almost 2-page communication in the 

 October Auk from Jos Grinell who is 

 perhaps our leading exponent of the 

 doctrine that the more sub-species and 

 geographical races the better and in 

 the course of a somewhat lengthy dis- 

 cussion he uses the following lan- 

 guage: "I insist Dr. Dwight repeated 

 assertions to the contrary notwith- 

 standing, we simply must consider 

 locally inhabited as one of the most 

 important character process by a 

 species or sub-species." As this ap- 

 pears to be more or less in the nature 

 of a command we should all acquiesce, 

 however the Oologist reserves its right 

 to still be of the opinion that the 

 classification of our North American 

 birds as now carried on is rapidly 

 making us more or less of a laughing 

 stock in the eyes of the laymen and 

 of many thoroughly scientific people 

 to imagine that every bird found with 

 one or another feather an eighth or 

 sixteenth of an inch shorter than some 

 other bird or with a bill from one to 

 half a dozen millimeters longer should 



