478 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
of a walnut tree while I walked a little way down the canyon. On 
my return, although the eggs were within a few feet of my camp, a 
Jay had destroyed all but one. I watched and in a few minutes he 
returned, but for his last time” (MS). At Fruitland, in October and 
November, Mr. Birdseye found the Jays staying around farm buildings 
picking up food. Like the rest of the jays, as Mr. Robert B. Rockwell 
says, they are very inquisitive birds, and a good deal of their time is 
spent “investigating,” but they are also cautious and secretive, especi¬ 
ally about the nest. 
Their notes Mr. Ridgway considers “harsh and piercing to an extreme 
degree.” “That most frequently uttered,” he says, “is a shrill screech, 
sounding like we'ahk , we'ahk, whence the name bestowed upon it by the 
Paiute Indians”— we'ahk (1877, p. 527). 
