The California Jays 



ity, however, within five or ten minutes, the bird summons her mate, 

 and together they proceed to denounce the order of the day. Beside the 

 ordinary clamor, dzweep or jooreet jooreet, and the alternating klewk klewk 

 klwek klwek (akin to the shook shook shook notes of C. stelleri), the attendant 

 parents give vent to a soft clucking note, evidently a note of anxiety, 

 although its quality is such as to belie the implication. These notes are 

 often uttered with scarcely appreciable intervals, a mere droning pulsation, 

 made with a closed 

 beak — indeed, with 

 scarcely a visible 

 motion of the 

 throat. If we men- 

 tion here also a 

 peculiar waggish 

 creaking note, a 

 subdued, toneless 

 arrrrrrk, we shall 

 have completed an 

 inventory of 

 Aphelocoma 's 

 major vocal ac- 

 complishments. If 

 speech fails, how- 

 ever, the birds give 

 further vent to their 

 indignation in the 

 peculiar fashion of 

 assaulting the 

 neighboring trees. 

 The bark is picked and shattered furiously, or the leaves are plucked off 

 in whirlwind fashion. As a subsitute for bad language this has much to 

 recommend it. 



It goes without saying that Mr. and Mrs. Aphelocoma are models ot 

 conjugal fidelity, as well as exemplary parents. It always does stump 

 the righteous to see the wicked observing the rules of the game in these 

 essential matters, but they do. Mr. A. will proffer his spouse a mangled 

 Chipping Sparrow chick, dripping with warm blood, with the same 

 gentle courtesy which you would show in serving a portion of chicken to 

 your lady love. Blue-jay children, I take it, are unusually well behaved, 

 even if their tender nurture has left a woodside mourning. And for these 

 children the jay has caressive and crooning notes which take hold of the 

 very heart of comfort, notes of fond endearment which have come down 



Taken in Los Angeles County 



Photo by Donald R. Dickey 



THE AGE OF INNOCENCE 



57 



