The California Jays 



following immediately with 'Whoa boy, whoa,' and following with such 

 a variation of 'whoas' and 'get-ups' and clucks, that the poor horse would 

 not know what to do. 



"One of the most amusing uses to which the Magpie puts his powers 

 is to call the chickens — 'chick, chick, chick, chick,' and when they have 

 run, eager and expectant, in the direction from which the sound comes, 

 which is, naturally, the cage, to seize one by the comb or the back of the 

 neck and pull out a few feathers or spill a little blood. An old game hen 

 used to respond to his calls, and as soon as she received a tweak on the 

 head would ruffle up and begin a regular fight through the wire netting. 

 At this time John Henry exhibited himself at his best. While flying at 

 the hen he would keep saying 'Chick-chick-chick, come on, come on, 

 Harry, Harry — get up, hello'. In fact he would go through almost his 

 entire vocabulary while fighting and pulling out feathers." 



No. 7 



California Jay 



A. 0. U. No. 481. Aphelocoma californica californica (Vigors). 



Description. — Adult in fresh {fall and winter) plumage: Pileum, hind-neck 

 sides of neck, and breast (with interrupted borders of jugular white patch), wings,, 

 upper tail-coverts, and tail, bright grayish blue (cadet blue to Venetian blue); darker 

 (deep cadet blue) on crown and nape; lighter (king's blue) on wings and upper tail- 

 coverts; tertials and rectrices finely and obscurely barred with darker; concealed 

 webs of flight-feathers, and inner edges of rectrices, dusky; the shafts of wings and tail 

 black; cheeks dark blue (hortense blue) changing to slaty black on auriculars; a super- 

 ciliary line of white streaks; chin, throat, and chest, white, the plumage loose and 

 streaked with bluish dusky; back and scapulars warm brownish gray (benzo brown), 

 sometimes glossed with blue, paling with eruptive white and mingled bluish on wing; 

 breast, immediately below jugular area, warm grayish brown, fading quickly to pale 

 brownish gray on belly and sides; crissum pale bluish white; axillars and lining of 

 wings mouse-gray, sometimes tinged with bluish. Bill and feet, black; iris, brown. 

 Adult in worn {spring and summer) plumage: Blue wearing off on head, sides of breast, 

 and tertials, with increasing exposure of dusky drab bases; brown of back fading 

 irregularly to drab and light drab; underparts, duller, soiled and brownish. Young 

 birds are much like adult in worn plumage, but duller, — blue scarcely discernible over 

 the drabs of head, neck, and sides of breast. Length of adult male 292-318 (11.50- 

 12.50); average of 31 (after Swarth): wing 119. 5 (4.70); tail 133.3 (5- 2 4); culmen 25.6 

 (1. 01); depth at nostril 8.5 (.33); tarsus 39.6 (1.56). Females average smaller. 



Recognition Marks. — Robin size; blue and gray coloration, without crest; 

 underparts lighter than in A. woodhousei, and crissum white, or white tinged with 

 bluish, instead of definitely blue. 



44 



