NOHTB AMERICAN BIRDS. 327 



488. ABIZOITA JAY. Aphelocoma sieberii arizonce Ridgw. Geog. Dist— 

 Southern New Mexico, Arizona and Nortliwestern Mexico. 



According to Mr. Scott the Arizona Jay is an abundant subspecies and resident 

 wherever the live-oaks are found on the San Pedro slope of Las Sierras de Santa 

 Catalina, in Southern Arizona, between the altitudes of 3000 and 7000 feet. It is an 

 eminently gregarious and sociable bird; even during the breeding season a number 

 of pairs may be found nesting in the same locality. March 16 a nest was found by 

 Mr. Scott apparently completed, but containing no eggs; it was built in a sapling 

 about ten feet from the ground, and was composed of dry rootlets laid very loosely 

 in concentric rings; there was no lining, and the walls of the structure average 

 about three-quarters of an inch in thickness; interior diameter, five inches; greatest 

 interior depth, an inch and three-quarters — a flat, saucer-like fabric' It was not 

 built in a crotch, but where several small twigs leave the large branch. All other 

 nests found resembled this one. On the 25th the nest was visited againi, and the 

 female was sitting, but no eggs had been laid, and further out on the same branch 

 another nest was built. Two other nests were found the same day about one 

 hundred feet away; in one a female was sitting on two eggs, which was thought at 

 the time to be the full set. The eggs were fresh, and so much like those of the Robin, 

 in color and general appearance as to be almost indistinguishable from them. These 

 two eggs measured 1.18x.88, 1.13x.86. April 1 the two nests first mentioned were 

 visited, and althodgh the old bird was sitting on the nest earliest completed, it con- 

 tained no eggs, but on April 7 Mr. Scott was rewarded by finding five fresh eggs in 

 this nest, identical in appearance with those above described, and measure 1.25x.83, 

 1.13X.85, 1.23X.83, 1.14x.80, 1.16X.84. The other nest at this time did not, nor several 

 weeks after, contain eggs. Perhaps no explanation can be offered for the prepara- 

 tion of the nest so long before it is used. The first nest was evidently complete on 

 March 16, and it contained no eggs until later than April 1; the first eggs must have 

 been deposited between that date and the 7th. Mr. Scott states that the same facts 

 have been noted in the breeding of the Gray Vireo (Yireo vicinior). As to the circum- 

 stance of the bird sitting so constantly before laying he suggests that it is not im- 

 probable that it was in order to keep possession of their nest, for as a number of 

 Individuals of the species composed the colony a question of ownership might easily 

 arise. He observes that the Arizona Jay is as great a robber of other birds' nests 

 as its cousin of the East, and possibly the habit of sitting so constantly even before 

 any eggs are laid, is to be accounted for by a strongly innerited tendency to prevent 

 intrusion. The building of extra nests finds a parallel in the case of the Long- 

 billed Marsh Wrens, and is possibly to be accounted for by the nervous activity of 

 the birds; or, the extra nest may afford night resting places for the male during the 

 breeding season, — Auk, III, pp. 81-83. 



483. GBEEIT JAY. Xanthoura luxuosa (Less.) Geog. Dist. — Eastern Mexico, 

 north to the Rio Grande valley in Texas. 



Dr. Merrill states that the Rio Grande Jay is a common -resident about Fort 

 Brown and higher up the river, but does not seem to pass much into the interior of 

 Texas. Mr. George B. Sennett says: "Of all the birds on tlie Lower Rio Grande, 

 this is the , most mischievous, robbing and despoiling other birds' nests without 

 mercy." Its nest, Mr. Sennett observes, is not easily found, for it is always con- 

 cealed in thickets, or in the heavy undergrowth of dense woods. A large series of 

 eggs was taken. Of those obtained early in April, few were freshly laid, while all 

 those obtained in May were fresh, indicating that a second brood is reared, though 



