The Santa Cruz Jay 



Taken on Santa Cruz Island Photo by the Author 



"ALMOST AN ANGEL" 



PORTRAIT OF SANTA CRUZ JAY 



spotted with olive (Lincoln 

 green to deep grape green). 

 The green element fades 

 quickly, however, so that eggs 

 advanced in incubation are 

 of a pale Niagara green ground 

 color. Among a dozen sets 

 there are no color variants 

 worth mentioning; nor have I 

 seen a single example of the 

 " red " type, which is so pleas- 

 ing a feature of the mainland 

 form. In size the eggs of the 

 Santa Cruz form average 

 slightly larger than those of 

 A. calif ornica. 



Second sets are prepared 

 with amazing alacrity if the 

 first are destroyed. In two 

 cases we noted complete sets 

 of five thirteen days after the 

 first had been taken. This 

 quick recovery was the more 

 remarkable in one instance, 

 because the first set had been 

 near hatching, and the re- 

 productive organs of the birds 

 were, therefore, in a state of 

 quiescence. 



One speaks without apo- 

 logy of "collecting" jays' eggs, 

 for the jay is a master oologist 

 himself. Doubtless he owes 

 much of his sleek corpulence 

 to a diet of Dusky Warblers' 

 eggs; and as for those pleas- 

 ing, but not humanly seduc- 

 tive ovals known as Mourn- 

 ing Doves' eggs, they are a 

 thing almost unknown in jay 

 territory. The poultry keep- 

 er, too, at the "big ranch" 



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