PERCHING BIRDS 
491. Clarke’s Nutcracker. Nucifraga 
columbiana. 
Range. — Mountains of western North Amer- 
ica from Mexico to Alaska. 
The Clarke Crow, as this bird is often known, 
is a common resident in most of its range. The 
adults are grayish with black wings and cen- 
tral tail feathers, the tips of the primaries and 
outer tail feathers being 
•V ' ' .. white. Their tail is short 
, • - - - and their flight slow and 
' . * - . ■ somewhat undulating like 
' - j ' • ' that of some of the Wood- 
\ peckers. Their food con- 
r - . ' sists of anything edible 
from seeds and larvae in 
the winter to insects, ber- 
ries, eggs and young birds 
In the spring they retire to 
the tops of ranges, nearly to the limit of trees, 
where they build their large nests of sticks, 
twigs, weeds, strips of bark, and fibres matted 
together so as to form a soft round ball with a 
deeply cupped interior; the nest is located at 
from ten to forty feet from the ground in pine trees and the eggs are laid early 
before the snow begins to leave. They are three in number, grayish in color 
with a greenish tinge and finely spotted over the whole surface with dark 
brown and lavender. Size 1.30 x .90. Data. — Salt Lake Co., Utah, April 25, 
1900. Nest placed in pine 40 feet up on a horizontal branch, and not visible 
from below. The tree was at the upper edge of a pine forest at an altitude of 
about 3000 feet above Salt Lake City. The nest was discovered by seeing the 
parent fly into the tree; the next day a nest was found with three young nearly 
ready to fly. Collector, W. H. Parker. This set of three eggs is in the oological 
collection of Mr. C. W. Crandall. 
Grayish blue 
at other seasons. 
Clarke’s Nutcracker 
492. Pinon Jay. Cyanocephalus cyanocephalus. 
Bluish white 
Range. — Western United States between the Rockies 
and Sierra Nevadas, and from southern British Colum- 
bia to Arizona. 
This Crow-like Jay has a nearly uniform bluish plum- 
age, and is found abundantly in the pine belts of its 
range. Their habits are similar to those of the Clarke 
Crow and the nests are similarly built at lower eleva- 
tions in pines or junipers. During April or May they lay 
from three to five eggs of a bluish white color specked 
and spotted with brown. Size 1.20 x .85. 
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