Читать книгу Life Histories of North American Jays, Crows, and Titmice - Arthur Cleveland Bent - Страница 21
ОглавлениеHABITS
Ridgway (1904) describes this jay as “similar to P. o. obscurus, but decidedly larger (except feet), and coloration much grayer; back, etc., deep mouse gray, instead of brown, remiges and tail between gray (no. 6) and smoke gray, instead of drab-gray, and under parts grayish white instead of brownish white.” He gives as its range “interior districts of northern California (northern Sierra Nevada, upper Sacramento Valley, Mount Shasta, etc.), north through central Oregon and Washington to interior of British Columbia.”
The above range evidently includes the entire length of the Cascade Mountains in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia and probably both sides of these mountains.
The gray jay had not been separated from the Oregon jay when Major Bendire (1895) wrote his account of the latter. Apparently all his personal observations refer to griseus. He first met with it on the summit of the Blue Mountains, between Canyon City and Camp Harney, Oreg., at an altitude of about 6,500 feet. This is well within the range of griseus, being far to the eastward of the Cascades. Here, he says, “they are found only on the highest portions of the mountains, which attain an altitude of about 7,000 feet. I did not see any in the neighborhood of Camp Harney.”
Nesting.—I can find no information on the nesting habits of the gray jay except the following from Dawson and Bowles (1909):
The eggs of the Gray Jay have not yet been reported from this State [Washington], but it is known that the bird builds a very substantial nest of twigs, grasses, plant fibre, and mosses without mud, and that it provides a heavy lining of soft gray mosses for the eggs. The nest is usually well concealed in a fir tree, and may be placed at any height from ten or fifteen feet upward, altho usually at sixty or eighty feet. Only one brood is reared in a season, and family groups hunt together until late in the summer.
There are a nest and three eggs of the gray jay, formerly in the collection of J. H. Bowles, now in the Ferry Museum of the Washington State Historical Society in Tacoma. W. P. Bonney writes to me that it was collected in Deschutes County, Oreg., but no date is given. He says that the nest “is about 6 inches in diameter, well built from few small sticks, some fiber, grasses, soft moss, some feathers and scraps of wool. The eggs are dingy gray, with small brown spots scattered all over.”
Food.—Dawson and Bowles (1909) say: “Hunger is the chief characteristic of these docile birds, and no potential food is refused, nuts, acorns, insects, berries, or even, as a last resort, the buds of trees. Meat of any sort has an especial attraction to them; and they are the despair of the trapper because of their propensity for stealing bait.”
Food taken from campers is mentioned by Taylor and Shaw (1927) under behavior, but they also add:
When food is scarce the camp robbers sometimes visit the garbage pile. They are fond of dead mice, often stripping off the skin before eating them. Fresh meat of any kind is relished also. Ben Longmire found a nest of young juncos on a small tree that had been cut down to make way for a new trail. He removed the nest with the young birds to another tree in plain sight so that the parent birds could find the young. The camp robbers carried off the young birds and devoured them. In some localities they are said to be called butcher birds.
Behavior.—Taylor and Shaw (1927) write of the habits of this jay in Mount Rainier National Park:
The vocal versatility and freedom from shyness of the gray jay, together with his occurrence in the deep woods where other birds are scarce, help to sustain his reputation as one of the park’s most interesting bird citizens. The bird is likely to be heard, first, in the upper branches of the firs or hemlocks at some little distance. In a moment, perchance, a wisp of gray smoke seems to float into camp and there is the saucy whiskey jack, very quiet now, perched on a branch of the tree to which the camp table is nailed, and not 6 feet from where you are sitting. Cocking his bright eye at you in a knowing manner, he scans you with much circumspection. Then down he drops, as likely as not, right onto the table, and before you know it has seized a piece of butter from a plate at arm’s length and made off with it! * * * By this time three or four more of the birds are waiting for a turn. Scraps of meat, bacon rind, bread, potatoes, butter, oatmeal, or almost any other foods are prized. When one breaks camp a company of four or six gray jays is usually on hand, patiently waiting to pick up any scraps which may be left over. Sometimes, but not often, the birds are shy. * * *
They are very jealous and have many a severe family fight. As a rule no two camp robbers will eat out of the same dish, though at other times friendly enough. They do not like to have the chipmunks too close to their food supply, either, and often combine forces to drive them away. The Steller jay and varied thrush are admitted to their company on equal footing, but woe be to the owl or the hawk that invades their preserves.
J. A. Munro writes to me: “Family groups, consisting of adults and three or four dark young, visited our camp and became tame enough to take food from the hand.”
Voice.—Bendire (1895) says that “while some of their notes are not as melodious as they might be, the majority are certainly quite pleasing to the ear, and I consider this species a very fair songster. I have listened to them frequently, and have been surprised to find so much musical ability.”
Mrs. Bailey (1902) writes: “The voices of the jays were heard around the log house on Mount Hood from morning till night. Their notes were pleasantly varied. One call was remarkably like the chirp of a robin. Another of the commonest was a weak and rather complaining cry repeated several times. A sharply contrasting one was a pure, clear whistle of one note followed by a three-syllabled call something like ka-wé-ah. The regular rallying cry was still different, a loud and striking two-syllabled ka-whee.”
Taylor and Shaw (1927) give the gray jay credit for “a truly impressive variety of calls and whistles.” They refer to the robinlike call, and add: “A cackling note whut whut kadakut is sometimes given. Very unusual ejaculations are their retezzt, ritizst or reckekekekz. Their whistled calls may be rendered wheet wheet, tseeuk or wheeup, and very commonly wheeoo wheeoo. The notes are clear and can be heard for some distance through the forest.”
