380 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



was less common than further up the Yukon. I saw one 15 miles 

 above Fort Yukon, heard several at Hendrick's Station, August 

 25th, and saw one at St. Michael, September, i8th. {Bishop.) 



Breeding Notes. — Toward spring the jays became remarkably 

 reclusive, and their visits around camp were less and less fre- 

 quent. I suspected that by the middle of March they would 

 nest, and I consequently spent much time in fruitless search. On 

 the 20th of March, while out snowshoeing across the valley, I 

 happened to see a pair of jays flying towards a tract of spruces, 

 and as had become almost habitual with me under such incentive, 

 I followed them up. I did not see the birds for some time, until 

 finally I saw a jay with a large bunch of white down in its bill, 

 flying back along the timber. The other bird was accompanying 

 it, following a little behind. I lost sight of them among the dis- 

 tant trees, but by following the general course of their flight and 

 peering into all the thicker spruces I chanced to discover the nest. 

 It was ten feet above the snow in a dense young spruce growing 

 among a clump of taller ones on a knoll. It was as yet a flimsy 

 affair, consisting of dry spruce twigs, with bits of down and feath- 

 ers showing through from beneath. Although I did not disturb 

 the nest in the least, a visit two weeks later found it covered with 

 snow and apparently deserted. On April loth, among ten jays, 

 secured about twenty miles down the Kowak from our winter 

 camp, was one female, which contained in the oviduct, a full-sized 

 though unshelled, egg. Not until May 13th, however, did I 

 finally find an occupied jay's nest, and its discovery then was by 

 mere accident. It was twelve feet up in a small spruce amongst 

 a clump of larger ones on a low ridge. There were no " tell-tale 

 sticks and twigs on the snow beneath," as Nelson notes, and in 

 fact nothing to indicate its location. The nest rested on several 

 horizontal or slightly drooping branches against the south side of 

 the main trunk. The foliage around it was moderately dense, so 

 that it could be seen from the ground, though only as an indistinct 

 dark spot. The bird was sitting on her nest when I discovered it. 

 Her head and tail appeared conspicuously over the edge of the 

 nest, and she remained on until I had climbed up within an arm's 

 length of her. She then left the nest and silently flew to a near-by 

 tree where she was joined by her mate. They both remained in 

 the vicinity, but ostensibly paid little attention to me. They 

 followed each other about playfully, uttering low conversational 

 notes. The male would try to approach the female, vibrating his 



