476 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
ack-ack-ack-ack-ack, coming from the tree tops, attracted our attention 
to the Long-crested Jay, one of the most positive characters and hand¬ 
somest birds of the forest, with high black crest and rich quiet tints 
lighted by turquoise. Its actions show keen perception and prompt 
decision as it flies about or climbs up the branch ladders of the trees. 
An old one who brought her nearly grown brood into the bushes on the 
edge of camp, one morning, ran out into the grass by our tent to pick 
strawberries for them. Quickly spying the red berries, she would 
pick one and with a toss of the head throw it well back in her bill, 
to be held there till she had accumulated enough to make it worth 
while to fly back to the young. 
While we were with them, a real song w*as twice heard from the 
Long-crested Jay, a squeaky conversational effort to be sure, but one 
with modulations and a tone of content much better than fine frenzy. 
In the Datil Mountains at 9,000 feet, where Mr. Hollister found 
the Jays especially common, in October they were feeding on acorns 
from an oak grove surrounding his tent. At Twining, late in the fall 
Mr. Surber found them very numerous and almost as gentle as the 
Rocky Mountain Jay. “They v r ould come to my door every morning,” 
he says, “as near the same time as if they had a time piece to govern 
them, and make such a racket that I v T ould get up and open the door 
to stop their noise. One got so tame that it would come into my room.” 
In the fall, Mr. Henshaw states, the Long-crested Jays move about 
in parties of six or-eight, and spend considerable time on the ground, 
hunting after seeds, acorns, and berries, wdiich supplement at this 
season their usual fare of seeds of conifers (1875, p. 336). This move¬ 
ment of small parties of Jays would seem to be merely w r andering, but 
as Doctor Wetmore reminds us in “Migration of Birds,” in a chapter 
entitled Migration Among Supposedly Resident Birds, “blue jays and 
woodpeckers, nuthatches and chickadees, may be present constantly 
through the year, yet the individuals seen in winter are not always the 
same as those observed during summer” (1926a, p. 84). In the future, 
it is to be hoped, bird banding will here, as in many other cases, sub¬ 
stitute definite knowledge for speculation. 
WOODHOUSE JAY: Apheldcoma calif6mica woodhousei (Baird) 
Plate 48 
Desciuption. — Length: 11.5-12.7 inches, wing 4.7-5.3, tail 5.2-6.2, bill .9-1, 
tarsus 1.4-1.5. Head uncreated , tail graduated. Adults: Upper parts, including wings 
and tail , dull blue except for mouse gray back and scapulars, and whitish streaks over 
eye; underparts gray except for throat which is grayish white, streaked urith bluish 
gray. Young: Wings and tail similar to adults, but rest of upperparts gray, with 
indistinct whitish streaks over eye; underparts brownish gray, deepest on chest. 
Range. —Upper Sonoran Zone of Great Basin and adjacent arid region, appar¬ 
ently resident from southeastern Oregon, southern Idaho, and southern Wyoming 
south to western Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and southeastern California. 
