July, 1922 STATUS OF THE CRESTED JAYS 129 
these races than at present, and when there was a comparatively limited number 
of specimens at Dr. Fisher’s disposal. ; 
From his conclusions I infer that insufficient attention was given to the 
matter of using strictly comparable stages of plumage, or to the consideration 
of the dates of capture of specimens examined and the various degrees of fading 
of colors shown at different seasons of the year. It is obviously unfair to com- 
pare specimens from one locality, of one season, with those from a different lo- 
eality of another season of the year. There is too much seasonal change in such 
eases to allow of fair comparison, and I think that some of the errors that have 
been handed down have come about through failure to emphasize this principle. 
Dr. Grinnell (Auk, xtx, 1902, p. 128) remarks in this connection, that ‘‘a series 
of Cyanocitta stelleri from the cloudy, humid Sitkan District taken in June and 
July show but slight traces of wear; while specimens of Cyanocttta stelleri fron- 
talis from the arid Sierra Madre Mountains of southern California taken at the 
same season are so ragged and faded as to almost completely destroy the fresh 
fall coloration’’. 
Examination of a large number of specimens, some of them many years old, 
taken at different seasons of the year, shows that fading, induced by exposure in 
the case of live birds (or by age in the case of even many well-kept skins) reduces 
the proportion of black and increases the amount of brown on the heads and 
backs of the three races considered in this paper. Some fading takes place in 
stelleri, but the mantle remains very dark, with less brown showing than in car- 
bonacea. In the case of carbonacea the brown is very evident even in fresh plum- 
age and becomes more pronounced as the seasonal changes progress, ending with 
a rich or warm brown by the beginning of the summer molt. 
The first of these races is the darkest all over. with the mantle a very dark 
brown, or ‘‘warm slate black’’ as some authorities have it. The second is a light- 
er colored bird, with the mantle much more brownish, or a ‘‘warm slate gray’’; 
while frontalis is much lighter yet. and has the mantle of a dark mouse gray - 
which. in fresh autumn plumage, shows very little trace of brown. In this last 
race the head and crest are of a bluish black that contrasts quite strongly with 
the mouse gray of the back, the contrast being much greater here than in either 
of the other two races. One of the distinguishing characteristics of frontalis is 
this bluish wash that pervades not only the black of the head, but all of the dark- 
er parts. 
On specimens taken at Requa, Del Norte County. California. in fresh plum- 
age (Sentember) there is a harely verceptible tinge of brownish to the dark blu- 
ish slate, or mouse gray, of the mantle, or to the (almost) black of the head and 
erest; whereas on specimens from the same locality taken in May, the tinge of 
brownish, while still slight, is very easily discernible, but it is not the same brown 
as that of carbonacea. Tt is a much lighter brown, and towards fall the old worn 
feathers become a grayish brown. 
As compared with birds from Requa, autumn specimens taken progressively 
farther south along the coast show a lighter slate on the back and less depth in 
the black of the head, but the bluish wash is distinctly present. The gray on 
the throats of these northwest coast birds is lighter and the area covered by it is 
much more extended than it is in carbonacea, it being very similar in these par- 
ticulars to that of frontalis. 
