PINON JAY. 



Cyanocepbalus cyanocephalus Stejneger. 



^HIS bird inhabits the Rocky Mountains, west to the Cascade Range and the 

 Sierra Nevada, and from Mexico north to British America. It was discovered in 

 1840 by Prince Maximilian zu Wied, and was formerly known by omithologisis ak 

 Maximilian's Jay. 



According to the observations of Dr. Elliott Coues, who found the Pmok Jay a 

 permanent resident at Fort Whipple, Arizona, it feeds "principally upon Juniper-berrieb 

 and pine seeds ; also upon acorns, and probably other small, hard fruit. Notwithstanding 

 its essentially corvine form, the habits of this bird like its colors, are rather those of 

 the Jays. It is a garrulous and vociferous creature, of various and curiously modulated 

 chattering notes when at ease, and of extremely loud, harsh cries when in fear or angef . 

 The former are somewhat guttural, but the latter possess a resonance different both 

 from the hoarse screams of the Long-crested Jay, and the sharp, wiry voice of the Blue 

 Jay. Like Jaj%, it is a restless, impetuous bird, as it were of an unbalanced, eveh 

 frivolous, mind; its turbulent presence contrasting strongly with the poised and some- 

 what sedate demeanor of the larger black Crows. With these last, however, it shares' a 

 strpng character — its attitudes when on the ground, to which it habitually descends, 

 being Crow-like, and its gait, an easy walk or run, dififering entirely from the leaping 

 progression of the Jays. It shares a shy and watchful disposition. ... It is highly 

 gregarious, in the strict sense of the term. Immense as the gatherings of the CrOws 

 frequently are, these birds seem to associate rather in community of interest tiian in 

 obedience to a true social instinct ; each individual looks out for himself, and the cotki- 

 pany disperses for causes as readily as it assembles. It is different with these small. 

 Blue Jay Crows ; they flock, sometimes in surprising numbers, keep as close together as 

 Blackbirds, and move as if by a common impulse. As usual, their dispersion is marked, 

 if not complete, at the breeding season ; but the flocks reassemble as soon as the year- 

 lings are well on the wing, from which time until the following spring hundreds are 

 usually seen together. On one occasion at least, I witnessed a gathering of probably a 

 thousand individuals." 



Capt. B. F. Goss was the first naturalist who found the nest and eggs of this 

 bird. "In May 1879," writes Mr. Goss7 "I T;bok nine sets of the eggs of Maximilian's 

 Jay in Colorado. Their nests were all found within from five to nine miles east and 

 south-east of Fort Garland. This region lies along the western base of the Sangre 

 de Christo Mountains, is broken by hills and spurs from the main range, and has an 

 elevation of about 9,000 feet. The nests were all in high, open situations, two of them 

 well up the steep mountain sides, and none in valleys or thick timber. All were in small 

 pinon pines from five to ten feet up, out some distance from the body of the tree, and 

 not particularly well concealed. They are large, coarse, and deeply hollowed structures, 

 much alike, being made mostly of grayish shreds of some fibrous plant, or bark, which 

 breaks up into a mass of hair-like fibres, these forming the 'lining, while some weeds and 



