The California Jays 



Nesting. — Nest: Basally a crude criss-cross of long twigs; middle structure 

 very scanty or wanting; lining, typically, of coiled rootlets, always of uniform der- 

 ivation; innermost lining, or not, of coiled horsehair or matted cowhair; placed at any 

 height in bush or tree. Eggs: 4-6, of two types: The green type, ground-color pale 

 sulphate green to lichen green, spotted or blotched, chiefly at larger end, with deep 

 olive or lincoln green; the 'red" type, ground-color clear grayish white to lichen-green, 

 spotted with warm sepia or bister to Rood's brown. Av. of 140 eggs in the M. C. O. 

 collection 27.4 x 20.3 (1.08 x .80); index 74. Extremes measure, 34.3 x 19 (1.35 x .75); 

 index 57; and 24.4 x 20 (.96 x .79); index 82. Season: April, one brood. 



v.*. 



w- 



* 



Taken al Los Colibris 



DISTRUSTFUL 



Range of Aphelocoma califomica. — California, except the southeastern desert 

 regions. Lower California, and western Oregon, north to and barely across the 

 Columbia River in the neighborhood of Vancouver, Washington. 



Range of A. c. califomica. — "A relatively narrow strip along the coast of Cali- 

 fornia and northern Lower California; from the San Pedro Martir Mountains, Lower 

 California, north on the coastal slope of California, west of the southern Sierras and 

 the Coast ranges, through the San Diegan and Santa Cruz districts to the south side 

 of San Francisco Bay" (Swarth). 



Authorities. — Vigors (Garrulus calif amicus) , Zoology of Beechey's Voyage, 

 1839, p. 21, pi. v. (original description; type from Monterey, Calif.); Gambel, Proc. 

 Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., vol. iii., 1847, pp. 201-202 (crit.) ; Bendire, Life Hist. N. Amer. 

 Birds, vol. ii., 1895, pp. 374-377 (part), pi. v., fig. 17 (habits, nest and eggs); Merriam, 

 F. A., Auk, vol. xiii., 1896, p. 120 (burying acorns) ; Beal, Biol. Surv. Bull., no. 34, 

 1910, pp. 50-56, pi. iii. (part) (food); Mailliard, J., Condor, vol. xiv., 1912, p. 42 (record 

 of nests) ; Grinnell and Swarth, L^niv. Calif. Pub. Zool., vol. 10, 1913, pp. 261-262 (crit. 

 re obscura); Swarth, Univ. Calif. Pub. Zool., vol. 17, 1918, pp. 410-413, I fig. (crit.: 

 range). 



45 



