ocT., 1899.] BIRDS. 119 
65. Aphelocoma californica. California Jay. 
Fairly common at Sisson, and more abundant in the lower country 
farther north. Seen by Vernon Bailey near Gazelle August 31, by 
W. H. Osgood among the junipers in Shasta Valley September 17 to 
20, and by me in the undergrowth along the edge of the open pine 
and oak forest bordering the south end of Shasta Valley, where it 
was fairly common, September 29. 
66. Perisoreus obscurus. Oregon Jay. 
Unaccountably rare on Shasta during our stay. On August 6, when 
in a dense part of the forest east of the lower end of Gray Butte, I saw 
a flock of Steller jays, and with them several birds I took to be Oregon 
jays in the dark plumage of the young. August 20 Vernon Bailey shot 
one on Horse Camp Trail at an altitude of 6,600 feet, and two days later 
saw ten in the fir forest between Squaw Creek and Mud Creek Canyon. 
September 28, on his way around the mountain, he saw three above the 
point where the wagon road crosses Ash Creek, at an altitude of about 
5,900 feet, by far the lowest point at which the species was seen. On 
July 29, 1899, Walter K. Fisher saw about 15 Oregon jays on Horse 
Camp trail. 
In 1883 C. H. Townsend saw four small flocks (July 30 to September 7) 
in the heavily timbered forests of Mount Shasta. 
67. Corvus americanus. Crow. 
A few seen at Sisson. In July, 1889, Walter K. Fisher found them 
common in Shasta Valley. 
68. Nucifraga columbiana. Clark Crow; Nutcracker. 
Clark crows are among the most common, most characteristic, and 
most interesting birds of the higher slopes of Shasta. In summer they 
are closely restricted to the Hudsonian zone and adjacent rocky slopes 
immediately above timberline, but in fall they wander far and wide in 
search of food and are liable to be seen almost anywhere. Two or 
three, apparently young of the year, visited Wagon Cainp, at tiie lower 
edge of the Shasta firs, as early as August 8; and in September it was 
not unusual to see small flocks or single individuals flying over the 
chaparral belt between Wagon Camp and Sissen. 
The usual food of the Clark crow—the large nut-like seeds of Pinus 
albicaulis—having failed in 1898, the birds were feeding mainly on 
insects. The stomachs of specimens killed at extreme timberline con- 
tained in some cases grasshoppers only, in others chiefly beetles (Cole- 
optera); of those killed lower down, in the alpine hemlocks and Shasta 
firs, chiefly small hairless greenish caterpillars. They sometimes flew 
up to masses of yellow lichen, where they seemed to be picking out 
something to eat. On upper Squaw Creek, August 30, two were seen 
eating blueberries (F..\. M.). During hot atternoons the latter part 
of July they were often sven soaring and performing aerial antics above 
the forest, and also chasing insects in the air, launching ont from the 
tree tops after them like flycatchers. As a rule, they are silent when 
