336 :^ESTS AND E0G8 OP 



and cunning. Major Bendire found it breeding quite commonly in the mountain- 

 ous regions about 'Fort Harney, Oregon. April 22, 1876, two nests were found, one 

 containing a young bird, just hatched, and two eggs with the shells chipped; the other 

 contained three young. Between April 24 and 30 about a dozen nests were observed, 

 all containing three young, each in difEerent stages of development. . In the spring 

 of 1877 not a single bird was observed where they were found breeding the year be- 

 fore, and their absence was accounted for by the scarcity of the seeds of the pine 

 which constitute their principal food. On April 4, 1878, a nest containing three eggs 

 was found, and at this early date incubation was far advanced. A set of two eggs, 

 with good-sized embryos, was taken April 8. All the nests were placed in pine trees, 

 generally well out on the limbs, and from sixteen to forty feet above the ground. 

 Trees with plenty of branches seemed to be preferred, and the edges of pine timber 

 to the interior of the forests. A nest is described as rather bulky, the base consisting 

 of a platform of small sticks and twigs, mostly of the white sage; on this the nest 

 proper is placed, which is composed of dry grasses, vegetable fibres, hypnum moss 

 and the fine inner bark of the western juniper, all compactly woven together, making 

 a warm, comfortable structure. The sizes of four eggs, as given by Major Bendire, 

 are as follows: 1.22x.95, 1.20x.90, 1.26x.95, 1.30x.92, respectively. Their color is a 

 light grayish-green, irregularly spotted and blotched with a deeper shade of gray, 

 chiefiy at the larger end. In the mountainous region southeast of Fort Garland, 

 Colorado, the late Captain B. F. Goss found nests of this species under the same 

 conditions as observed by Major Bendire. May 21 a nest was discovered containing 

 young. The nests, at first appearance, according to both observers, looked more 

 like squirrels' nests than anything else, and the birds were close sitters, even 

 allowing themselves to be captured rather than leave their nests. During the 

 breeding season they are perfectly silent. 



492. PINON" JAY. Cyanocephalus cyanocephalus (Wied.) Geo. Dist. — The 

 Region between the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada Ranges, from Mexico to 

 British America. 



The region between and including the Rocky Mountains and the eastern slope of 

 the Sierra Nevadas, wherever grows the yellow pine, the pinon and the juniper, the 

 Blue Crow, Maximilian's or Pinon Jay makes its home. A bird combining the 

 form of a crow and the color and habits of a jay; of a restless, roving disposition, 

 but resident wherever found. It breeds in colonies, nesting in April, May and June, 

 according to locality. Nests containing eggs have been found in Nevada by Mr. 

 H. G. Parker in the first part of May, and fully fledged young were observed in the 

 same region by Mr. Ridgway as early as April 21. Mr. H. B. Bailey took a set of four 

 eggs in New Mexico that were well incubated June 5./ The late Captain B. F. Goss 

 found this bird breeding ini the region southeast of Fort Garland— the western base 

 of Ijlie Sangre de Christo Mountains, at an elevation of about 9000 feet. The nests 

 were all 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 grass are worked into the general fabric 

 The birds were close sitters, several not leaving till the nest was shaken, and they 

 could have been caught with the hand. One nest contained five eggs, six contained 

 four each, and two three each; both sets of three were partly incubated. Two nests 

 were taken May 5, five on the 10th and two on the 11th, 1879. The eggs are quite 



