GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS WEST OF 100TH MERIDIAN. 307 
While the maupie is to no inconsiderable extent a sharer in the natural cunning, so 
justly attributed to its relatives the crows, a fact in its history now and then comes 
to notice which would appear at first thought to negative the possession of this trait; 
as, for instance, the place and position in which their nests are occasionally found. Not 
only do these often seem to be imperiled by their proximity to the ground, being 
sometimes but a foot or two above if, but at times not the slightest attention will be 
paid to their concealment. I have in mind a certain point along the Carson River 
where some dead trees are found, in wliiqh the magpies have nested for apparently a 
long period, and where their nests are visible for a distance of many hundred yards. 
But as a matter of fact the eggs or young are less liable to danger than would at first 
thought be supposed, and doubtless experience has taught the birds this. In selecting 
sticks and twigs for the outer nest the magpie, probably by design, chooses such as, from 
their seraggly, thorny nature, they are enabled to so firmly interlock that all chance of 
forcible entry except through the small aperture in the side left for the purpose is cut¬ 
off, and every foe provided against except man alone. Indeed, I have myself, more 
than once, found it a far from easy matter to gain the interior through this thorny 
barrier. 
So far as humans are concerned the magpies have but little to fear, as their market¬ 
able value, fortunately for themselves, amounts to next to nothing. For, notwith¬ 
standing the fact that they may, when taken in hand young, be readily tamed and, 
after the proper manipulation, be taught to talk, they are so noisy and their disposi¬ 
tions so extremely mischievous, that a short experience usually results in their being 
voted a nuisance, and hence they stand in low favor. So a few taken for pets and 
an occasional nest destroyed by mischievous boys sum up the dangers of the magpie's 
housekeeping. 
The labor of this is pretty evenly divided. Upon the females devolves the main 
task of incubation, relieved now and then by their partners. The latter are away 
from home most of the time busily occupied iu foraging, since not only have they their 
own appetites to appease, but it is their duty to provide for the females engaged iu 
their enforced duty. Upon the appearance of the young both birds share equally in 
attention to their wants. 
About Carson the eggs are not deposited before the 1st of March, but as late as the 
12th of May quite a number of nests were found to contain fresh eggs. 
Cyanura Swainson. 
C. stelleri frontalis, Ridgw. Blue-fronted Jay. 
This form of the Steller’s jay has been traced by the expedition from the Coast and 
Sierra Ranges of Southern California into the Cascade Mountains of Oregon, and so on 
up to the Columbia River, at which point, however, the form does not cease, but con¬ 
tinues into Washington Territory. 
As is well known, this bird is represented in the Rocky Mountains by the long- 
crested variety, in which the streaks of the forehead are of a faint bluish-wliite instead 
of blue, and the upper eyelid is conspicuously patched with white. Two specimens 
collected at the base of the Cascade Range are worthy of note in this connection, since, 
while they represent the normal frontalis type in everyother particular, both show un¬ 
mistakable traces of this white patch, which in one is quite conspicuous; a hint, as it 
were, of the new character to be assumed farther to the eastward. 
A description of the young in first plumage is subjoined. 
First plumage. —Above, dark plumbeous; head darker, with no trace of blue streaks on 
forehead; wings blue, barred with black, as in adult; belly light blue; breast and 
throat plumbeous; chin with light space. 
Cyanocitta Bonaparte. 
C. floridanus californicus (Vig.). Californian Ground Jay. 
Numerous in the brushy foot-hills to a considerable distance north of Carson, Nev. 
A single specimen, the only one seen, was taken at The Dalles, on the Columbia, Oc¬ 
tober 4, and it perhaps occurs here and there over the intervening ground. 
Nuttall found the species common at Fort Vancouver, on the west side of the Cas¬ 
cade Mountains, in October, and indicates its occurrence as far north as the Frazer’s 
River. This was iu 1)834, and it appears to have escaped the observation of all the 
more recent explorers of the same region. Recently Mr. C. Roop, of Portland, Oreg., 
informed me that this jay is abundant near the mouth of the Willamette River, in 
both Oregon and Washington Territories. 
All the specimens we have seen from along the western slope, although not typical 
of the above race, are best referable to it.* 
In which connection see annual report of this survey for 1877, p. 1305. 
