Sept., 1921 ROCKY MOUNTAIN JAY IN YELLOWSTONE NATIONS PARK 149 
Beginning on September 18, 1919, I spent a week in camp near Cold Spring, 
not far from the main road and within a short distance of several summer camp 
erounds. Four jays arrived as soon as I did, and that evening one tried to fly 
off with a slice of ham soaking in boiling water to remove the salt. On the 
morning of the 20th, J] was aroused before sunrise by the scratching of jays’ 
claws on the canvas stiffened by the night’s frost. I should probably not have 
known what caused the disturbance, if the birds had not commenced a be- 
seeching whine ‘‘to come out and feed us.’’ Later during this stay, they did 
not wait to wake me up but came right in under the canvas where it lacked 
about three inches of meeting the ground. Usually I was away all day on 
trips In various directions; frequently I saw other Jays in the forest and even 
had four follow me for a mile or more along a 9000-foot ridge; the four at camp 
were always there when I got back, or they appeared soon after. Sometimes [ 
found them inside the tent foraging on the floor for erumbs. The 21st of Sep- 
tember was Sunday, and, as usual, I washed up everything in camp until the 
Jays stole every one of my pieces of soap! I cannot say that they ate the soap, 
but I do know they got away with it and hid it so effectually that I was soapless 
for a week. That evening at supper, a Jay tried to steal ham from the hot fry- 
ing pan when I took it off to replenish the fire; another one alighted on the 
far end of a stick on the fire and within a foot of the blaze and actually in iy 
smoke that was eddying about. Verily the Jays were ‘‘into everything’’ 
that camp! 
In the Yellowstone, Rocky Mountain Jays are almost always in pairs; 
never yet have I seen them in flocks, except for family parties. I do not think 
they intentionally associate with other birds; but the search for food takes 
them where other species, especially Nutcrackers and Black-headed Jays, are. 
Once I found them with Junecos, a squirrel, and two chipmunks about a little 
vile of oats dropped in the road. I have seen them with Red-breasted Nut- 
hatches; and once I found two Jays and a pair of Sparrow Hawks in the last 
tree at timberline on Quadrant Mountain. One day, a tiny Flycatcher aston- 
ished me by vigorously scolding a Jay near my camp at Lake Outlet. Later | 
I noted a Swainson Hawk cn a big bare pine with a Camp Robber perched 
three feet above him, and each bird.totally oblivious of the other. 
The flight of a Rocky Mountain Jay seems weak. A few wing Larokes 
carries the bird along slowly and upward slightly, then a sail carries him down 
at about the same angle, and this sequence is repeated over and over again, re- 
sulting in a slow flight of long, shallow undulations. As a rule, long flights 
are not attempted, but progress is made from tree to tree. In the autumn, this 
bird often precedes one from place to place especially in the late afternoon; 
not only along roads and trails, but I have had one fly from tree to tree on the 
shore while I coasted along in a cance. I presume this custom enables him 
eventually to get many a supper scrap. 
Most decidedly, Camp Robbers are not sonesters; yet I have ae them 
give several musical calls from a pine top, and their whistled ‘‘ker-wheet, 
wheet. wheet, wheet’’, with increasing shrillness cn each syllable, is very pleas- 
ing. In addition they have a variety of calls, mostly wheedling and coaxing, 
and at times approaching a continuous conversation ; often the calls acquire a 
scolding tone. While some of the whistles are shrill, the majority are in a 
low tone. 
In the Yellowstone, these Jays do not migrate, properly speaking; but 
