coast than the common Crow which is often in company
with this species. Their food consists of grain, berries, and animal
matter. Their nesting habits are like those of the common Crow and the
eggs are similar and have as great variations, but are smaller. Size
1.45 x 1.05.

[Illustration: American Crow. American Raven.]
[Illustration 314: Greenish white.]
[Illustration: Bluish white.]
[Illustration: Bluish white.]
[Illustration: Left hand margin.]

Page 313

491. CLARKE'S NUTCRACKER. _Nucifraga columbiana._

Range.--Mountains of western North America from Mexico to Alaska.

The Clarke Crow, as this bird is often known, is a common resident in
most of its range. The adults are grayish with black wings and central
tail feathers, the tips of the primaries and outer tail feathers being
white. Their tail is short and their flight slow and somewhat undulating
like that of some of the Woodpeckers. Their food consists of anything
edible from seeds and larvae in the winter to insects, berries, eggs and
young birds at other seasons. In the spring they retire to the tops of
ranges, nearly to the limit of trees, where they build their large nests
of sticks, twigs, weeds, strips of bark, and fibres matted together so
as to form a soft round ball with a deeply cupped interior; the nest is
located at from ten to forty feet from the ground in pine trees and the
eggs are laid early before the snow begins to leave. They are three in
number, grayish in color with a greenish tinge and finely spotted over
the whole surface with dark brown and lavender. Size 1.30 x .90.
Data.--Salt Lake Co., Utah, April 25, 1900. Nest placed in pine 40 feet
up on a horizontal branch, and not visible from below. The tree was at
the upper edge of a pine forest at an altitude of about 3000 feet above
Salt Lake City. The nest was discovered by seeing the parent fly into
the tree; the next day a nest was found with three young nearly ready to
fly. Collector, W. H. Parker. This set of three eggs is in the oological
collection of Mr. C. W. Crandall.

492. PINON JAY. _Cyanocephalus cyanocephalus._

Range.--Western United States between the Rockies and Sierra Nevadas,
and from southern British Columbia to Arizona.

This Crow-like Jay has a nearly uniform bluish plumage, and is found
abundantly in the pine belts of its range. Their habits are similar to
those of the Clarke Crow and the nests are similarly built at lower
elevations in pines or junipers. D