Henshaw on the Nest and Eggs of the Blue Crow . 113 
may the presence of this bird be confidently expected. Although 
having no liking for the heavy coniferous forests, it being the very 
rare exception to find the species therein, it yet shares with the 
Clarke’s Crow a fondness for the seeds of the yellow pine, and in 
winter, the supply of pinon nuts failing, and where the country is 
but sparsely timbered, it will often be found plundering these trees 
of their nutritious seeds. 
Finally, juniper berries may be mentioned as making the third 
most important item of fare. But doubtless during a bad year any 
of the smaller seeds are acceptable, and perhaps berries do not 
come amiss. Certainly I have more than once seen these Jays 
massing into flocks on the ground and feeding greedily upon grass 
seeds, and others report a similar experience. 
To none of our species can the term “ resident ” be applied with 
more exactness than to the present bird. Although its roving dispo- 
sition is perfectly apparent at all seasons, and although, except dur- 
ing the limited period of parental duties, its excursions are constant 
and wide, yet in no part of its wide range does it appear to be 
migratory, as the term is correctly understood. I have never my- 
self found it living among the high mountains, and believe this is 
contrary to its more usual habits. But in Arizona, according to Dr. 
Cones, it is so found, and there, as he suggests, it doubtless does 
migrate to the extent of forsaking them in winter for the more con- 
genial lower districts. Usually, however, no change of habitat with 
varying season takes place, and, wherever it occurs in summer, it 
is also to be seen in winter ; although the ever-restless bands cover 
in their journeyings a radius of many miles, being seen here to-day, 
to-morrow there, according as their tastes suggest a change of diet, 
or as mere caprice may urge. Thus they may often appear to have 
migrated from a district which in reality they have left only to re- 
turn to in a few days. Its gregarious disposition is one of its most 
marked and constant traits, and has been recorded by all who have 
ever seen the species in. the field. This close association of many 
individuals appears to persist throughout the year, as well during 
the breeding as at other seasons. 
Although so common and, in many respects, so well known a bird, 
the acquaintance of most of its many observers has ceased with the 
beginning of the nesting period, and it has been only within a com- 
paratively short time that any information of its habits at this sea- 
son has reached us. Mr. Ridgway was the first to supply any exact 
