Page:Condor18(2).djvu/26

?4 THE CONDOI? Vol. XIII ter out a whole conversation in low tones. When on the way, going somewhere, the flight is strong, steady, and even; but when the journey is over, the wings are shut and the bird plunges forward in one long swoop, opening his wings and sweeping up to his perch. While descending from a height the nut- crackers pitch down either in one long swoop, opening their wings with an audible, explosive burst, and curving up to the landing places; or they will take a series of such plunges. When crossing between two nearby groves, they do it in long, undulating swoops. They are given to perching at the tip of some tall pine that is itself at the top of a mountain, or on some commanding position where the country can be surveyed for miles in every direction. When they drink they turn the head sideways and drink through the side of the long bill. They can be tamed and kept about the house, becoming as impu- dent and mischievous as Crows. Nutcrackers have their own way of building their nests. Just think of birds that build their nests in February and bring forth their naked young in March, long before the snow has left the ground! These birds are so secre- tive about their nest that they make a series of stops fifty feet apart and sur- vey the country carefully from each stop. About February 1, at Fort Yellow- stone, elevation 6300 feet above sea level, the birds are mated and the building of the nest begins, each bird of the pair doing its share. The thick top of a cedar, or other evergreen, is selected, with a convenient crotch about twelve feet from the ground. First a rough platform of twigs is built. These twigs are broken from a cedar (western juniper) by a quick, wrenching jerk assisted by the cutting edges of the bill, and carried to the site. Here the material is piled in the crotch till the mass reaches a ball about nine inches in diameter and six inches high. The nest proper is deep and cup shaped, about six inches in diameter, and'has walls an inch thick; it is built of cedar or pine needles and the inner lining of grass stems and sl/redded juniper bark, each strand turned into place by the bird squatting down on it and twisting it in. A few horse hairs and bits of string are usually 'included in the lining. Four gray-green eggs, with irregular, gray-b?own markings are laid between February 28 and March 3, and the'brooding commences immediately. At such a time the brood- ing bird is subjected to all the vagaries of truly wintry weather. Often she sits t?hrough raging snowstorms protected only by the tuft of cedar needles over the nest, and many times has the writer seen the bird actually on the nest with the thermometer below zero. Under such conditions she draws herself down with only her tail feathers and perhaps her bill showing above the rim of the nest. She is very fearless, even submitting to capture rather than leave the nest; when she leaves, she does so quietly, and returns immediately after the intruder is gone. After brooding twenty-two days the young are hatched, naked of course, and with their eyes closed. Four weeks later the young leave the nest and by May 5 are fully leathered and shifting for themselves. Not- withstanding this early start there is no evidence to show that a second brood is raised. At higher altitudes the nesting is somewhat later, but at that it is safe to say that the latest of the young birds are able to care for themselves before the end of May. Summerville, South Carolina, Jani?ary 27, 1916.