472 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
Sangre dc Cristo Mountains at 11,500 feet (Jensen).] One was seen May 9, 1900, 
as low as 7,800 feet at Willis (Birtwell). [On a hill near Lake Burford, one was 
seen June 16, 1918 (Wctmore).] In 1904, in Wheeler Peak amphitheater at 11,400 
feet, the young were nearly full grown July 20, but were still being fed by the parents 
on July 26. They were common at 11,600 feet at the foot of Pecos Baldy after 
August 7, 1903 (Bailey); but they may have nested several hundred feet lower and 
gone up after the young were well grown. 
During the fall, this species has been noted on the crest of the San Juan Moun¬ 
tains at Hopewell, September 8,1904, at 9,900 feet (Gaut); in Costilla Pass at 10,000 
feet, September 26, 1903 (Howell); and at 9,500 feet in the Gallinas Mountains 
October 6, 1904 (Bailey). The 9,500-foot record probably represents about the 
lower limit of the range in the fall and winter, while the birds seen July 13-18, 1910, 
near the base of Lake Peak, 15 miles northeast of Santa Fe, were at the most south¬ 
ern recorded locality.—W. W. Cooke. 
Nest. —Usually on a branch of a spruce or other conifer, large and substantial, 
made of twigs, grasses, mosses, plant down, and feathers. Eggs: 3 to 4, varying 
widely in size and coloration from yellowish gray to pale green, finely dotted and 
blotched with brown and slate, or lavender, especially about the larger end; others 
more uniformly and largely blotched. 
Food. —Wild fruits, including elderberry, bearberry, sumac, and viburnum; also 
scattered grain in corrals; insects, especially grasshoppers and caterpillars; small 
mammals, meat, and camp food. 
General Habits. —As Mr. Ligon says, the habit of the Rocky 
Mountain Canada Jay, found in the hemlocks and spruces, is to go 
'quietly about investigating, constantly foraging, apparently regarding 
the presence of man no more than a tree or snag.” When we first 
camped at the foot of Pecos Baldy, at 11,600 feet, in Hudsonian Zone, 
the friendly birds flocked around us, delighting us by flying fearlessly 
down around our table to be fed. The second morning, to our distress, 
one was found accidentally caught in a trap set back under some 
spruces that it might escape discovery. As only one foot was hurt 
he was freed, but the accident seemed to make a difference in the 
number that came, only one or two being seen at a time after that. 
They were made so welcome that they came frequently, however, and 
surely at meals—the cook said they woke him up in the morning, they 
were in such a hurry for breakfast—and they dropped in occasionally 
all through the day, eating camp biscuits and even visiting the refuse 
heap when nothing else was to be picked up. After the accident we 
found the lamed Jay a number of times on the side of a gulch a few 
rods from camp, and then realized that the Camp Bird who seemed 
our most assiduous visitor almost always carried food in the direction 
of the lame one. We also heard the injured bird call till he brought 
a comrade. Although his foot was so hurt that it would have been 
difficult for him to get food for himself, he was as strong as ever ten 
days after the accident, evidently in good condition and spirits. We 
couid hardly escape the inference that he was fed by one at least of his 
