CROWS, MAGPIES AND JAYS 



n 



FLORIDA JAY (Aphelocoma coerules- 

 cens) 



_ The ornithologist rarely forgets the time and 

 circumstances wlien he first made the acquaint- 

 ance of a bird which he had not previously seen. 

 Forty-three years ago a water oak stood just 

 back of the blacksmith shop, in the village of 

 Archer, Alachua County, Florida. Here for sev- 

 eral hours one day a strange bird sat on its top- 

 most twig and called in a harsh, inquiring voice. 

 I had never seen nor heard such a bird, so the 

 impression it made was lasting. Later I learned 

 that it was a Florida jay, and that it was at the 

 extreme northern limit of its range. Not one of 

 them has ever been noted in that neighborhood 

 since that single wanderer made its brief visit. 



This jay is very local in its occurrence. It is 

 not found in the extensive pinelands, the heavy 

 growths of hardwood about the lakes, or in the 

 numerous swamps, prairies, and marshes that 

 dot the State. It dwells only where there are 

 dense growths of scrub oak, or of other shrubby 

 bushes, or in the pine areas immediately adjoin- 

 ing these places. Such favored regions are scat- 

 tered here and there over about half of the 

 Florida Peninsula. 



The bird is found in many places in the imme- 

 diate vicinity of the Atlantic coast, from St. Au- 

 gustine to Rockdale, south of Miami. Along the 

 Gulf coast it occurs from about the mouth of the 

 Suwannee River southward to Naples. Inland 

 it occupies territory northward from Naples to 

 Palatka and the Orange Lake country. 



A short distance outside of Leesburg, in Lake 

 County, Florida, I came upon a sandy area cov- 

 ered with bushes from four to six feet high. This 

 looked like Florida jay country, and although I 

 had seen no bird of this species in all that section, 

 I began a search and within ten minutes found 

 four of them. They were feeding on the ground 

 by the side of one of the overgrown cement side- 

 walks laid down by an optimistic real-estate com- 

 pany. The birds seemed rather tame. They 

 merely flew from bush to bush and watched 

 quietly, as though waiting for me to leave. 



Where one of these slender jays is found, there 

 is almost sure to be others, for they live in small 

 colony groups. Among the low dunes close to 

 the ocean, not far from New Smyrna, I once 

 counted fourteen in a few minutes. 



They are not so noisy as the blue jays, nor 

 have I ever heard them engage in any wide vari- 

 ety of "songs" and calls. 



Mr. A. H. Howell, who has in many places 

 gathered notes on the Florida jay, tells of visiting 

 Miss Werner, who, at her home near Sebring, 

 has won the confidence of her jay neighbors. 

 "She whistles a bright little tune and in a few 

 minutes the jays appear from all directions, and 

 without hesitation alight on her arm or shoulder, 

 to take the pieces of bread she ofifers them. She 

 told us she had been a year or more taming the 

 birds, and that it was a month or more before she 

 could get them near her. At the time of our visit, 

 however, they had become so used to strangers 

 that they allowed us to feed them, and even 

 alighted on our heads or shoulders." 



In low oaks these jays nest, making of twigs 

 and rootlets the cradle for their young, and they 

 lay three or four olive-green, black-spotted eggs. 



The length of this bird is ten and three-quar- 

 ters inches, this being about one inch shorter than 

 the common blue jay of the Eastern States. 



WOODHOUSE'S JAY (Aphelocoma cali- 

 fornica woodhousei) 



Adjoining the eastern line of the territory oc- 

 cupied by the California jay, we enter the country 

 of the magnificent Woodhouse's jay. It dwells 

 in the foothills and on the mountains to eleva- 

 tions of 5,000 to 8,000 feet, although in winter it 

 often descends to lower altitudes. 



In scrub-oak trees, junipers, and nut-producing 

 pines common throughout most of its range, it 

 builds its nest of twigs, weed stalks, rootlets, and 

 horsehair. For a tree-loving bird, the situations 

 chosen are unusually low, the nests often being 

 not more than two or three feet from the ground. 

 They are clamorous birds and certainly make no 

 effort to keep their presence a secret, except in 

 the nesting season, when stealth and caution are 

 their habits. 



They live on a wide variety of food. Insects 

 of different kinds are taken, fruits are eaten, and 

 nuts and acorns form a staple article of diet. 

 This jay is detested by all the small birds of the 

 region, for well they know that in spring he is 

 constantly hunting for their eggs and their nest- 

 lings. A collector of scientific specimens, who 

 placed some phoebe eggs on the ground within a 

 few feet of his camp, complained that one of 

 these birds purloined them all while his back was 

 turned for a few minutes. 



The Woodhouse's jay is found in locations 

 suitable to its habits of life, from southeastern 

 Oregon and southern Wyoming southward to 

 southwestern Texas and westward to southeast- 

 ern California. It is one of the group of species 

 californica, forms of which are distributed over 

 much of western and southwestern United States. 

 They are all so similar in appearance that few 

 people can distinguish between them. 



Two of these, the California and the Wood- 

 house's jays have been mentioned. The others, 

 as recognized by ornithologists, are as follows : 



LONG-TAILED JAY (A. c. immanis). 

 It is found in the valleys and along the mountain 

 slopes from the Washington border southward 

 between the Cascades and Coast Ranges, and in 

 the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys of Cali- 

 fornia. 



NICASIO JAY (A. c. oocleptica). The 

 homeland of this member of the Jay family is the 

 coast region of California, from San Francisco 

 Bay northward to Humboldt Bay. 



BELDING'S JAY (A. c. obscura). This 

 is a Mexican bird found in the northwestern sec- 

 tion of Baja California southward to latitude 30°. 

 It occurs for the most part in the hills and moun- 

 tains. 



XANTUS'S JAY (A. c. hypoleuca). Here 

 is another form inhabiting a region to the south- 

 ward of our border, viz., the cape region of 

 Baja California and from there on northward to 

 latitude 29°. 



TEXAS JAY (A. c. texana). Its range lies 

 in the central and central-western regions of 

 Texas, "from Kerr and Edwards counties to 

 Davis Mountains." 



