204 
ORDERS OF BIRDS— PERCHERS AND SINGERS 
on wings and tail, and with blue as its prevail- 
ing color. 
The Pinon Jay 1 (pronounced pin'yone) is a 
bird well worth knowing. On the Sierra Nevada 
mountains and adjacent plateaus, where the 
piflon pine, juniper and cedar bravely struggle 
against the scarcity of water, and only half 
clothe the rugged nakedness of Nature, this Jay 
is a welcome habitant. I think it safe to say 
that you will find it wherever you find the pinon 
pine, whose big, husky cones furnish a generous 
quantity of seeds, called “nuts,” which are good 
for man, and grand food for all the wild creatures 
that can crack their delicate shell. 
I have never seen the Pinon Jay so numerous 
that it could be called a “ common” bird through- 
out an extensive region. At the same time, it 
is a bird of social habit, and given to flocking, 
quite like our eastern crow. It is really a con- 
necting link between the crows and jays. It 
has a short, square tail, no crest or “top-knot;” 
its predominating color is grayish-blue, and its 
cry is a crow-like “caw.” 
Clarke’s Nut-Cracker 2 is a bird of the western 
mountain-tops and canyons, and a companion 
of the mountain-sheep. Wild creatures that 
love to dwell on high mountains, amid grand 
scenery, appeal to my affections more strongly 
than some others. To me, this bird recalls 
1 Cy-an-o-ceph'a-lus cy-an-o-ceph 1 a-lus . Length, 
11 inches. 
2 Nu-ci-fra'ga co-lum-bi-an'a. Length, 12 inches. 
pictures of mountain-parks, “rim-rock,” “slide- 
rock,” pines and cedars bravely climbing up 
steep acclivities, gloomy canyons, and rushing 
streams of icy-cold water below all. 
I first made acquaintance with this bird wdiile 
hunting elk and mountain-sheep, on a fearfully 
steep mountain-side, with a magnificent pano- 
rama spread out below. It greeted me in friendly 
fashion with the rasping “Kurr, Kurr!” which, 
when heard amid such surroundings, is not soon 
forgotten. It has been my misfortune, how- 
ever, never to see the remarkable habit thus 
graphically described by Mrs. Florence Merriam 
Bailey in her delightful “Handbook” : 
“Living mainly on the crests of the ranges, 
the birds fly to the high peaks to get the first 
rays of the sun, and when warmed go for food 
and water to the lower slopes. Their method 
of getting down is startling at first sight. Launch- 
ing out from a peak, with bill pointed downward 
and wings closed, they drop like a bullet for a 
thousand feet, to the brook where they wish to 
drink. Sometimes they make the descent at one 
long swoop, at other times in a series of pitches, 
each time checking their fall by opening their 
wings, and letting themselves curve upward 
before the next straight drop. They fall with 
such a high rate of speed that when they open 
their wings there is an explosive burst which 
echoes from the canyon walls.” 
The head, neck and body of this bird are uni- 
form ashy gray, and the wings and tail are black, 
with a white patch half-way down the former. 
The Nut-Cracker is really a small crow, twelve 
inches long, and much resembles the common 
gray and black crow of Europe. It is found in 
all the mountains of the West, from Alaska to 
Mexico, and straggles eastward to the eastern 
edge of the Great Plains. It is often called 
Clarke’s Crow. 
The Canada Jay, Whiskey-Jack, or Moose- 
Bird , 3 is by reason of its personal oddities and 
assertiveness perhaps the most conspicuous and 
widely known of all the perching-birds of the 
great coniferous forests of Canada. Every man 
who has trailed moose or caribou, or for any rea- 
son has camped in the Laurentian wilderness, 
knows well this audacious camp-follower, and 
remembers him with interest, if not even friend- 
ship. He has no real song, and his cries are 
3 Per-i-so' re-us canade?isis. Length, 12 inches. 
