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Scrub Jay in Bexar County, Texas

Keith L. Dixon

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Scrub Jay in Bexar County, Texas.-On April 12, 1951, I took a Scrub Jay (Aplielocoma coerdescens) from a small flock on a juniper-covered hillside about one mile southwest of Leon Springs in northwestern Bexar County, Texas. The specimen, a first-year female (ovary 10 X 5 mm., largest ovum 1 mm.), is now no. 123268 in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. Two other individuals were seen at the same time and a fourth was heard calling. In this area, at an elevation of approximately 1200 feet, the junipers were closely spaced, with a few live oaks (Q*ercas virginiana) and Texas oaks (Q. texana) scattered through them. This woodland, typical of the Edwards Plateau and the characteristic habitat of this jay (Pitelka, Univ. Calif. Publ. Zool., 50, 1951:300), extends for several miles to the southeastward, being replaced gradually by mesquite and low shrub growth as one approaches San Antonio.

The easternmost locality for A. c. texana cited by Pitelka (op. cit.:403) is Kerrville; Kerr County. Leon Springs lies about 40 miles southeast of that point. Beckham (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 10, 1888: 633-696) does not list this supposedly resident jay from the San Antonio region, although he spent more than a week collecting birds at Leon Springs in March, 1887. Attwater (Auk, 9, 1892 :337-345) does not report this species from the vicinity of San Antonio, nor do Kirn and Quillen in their list of the “Birds of Bexar County, Texas” (Witte Memorial Museum, San Antonio, 1927). Scrub Jays were not noted in the vicinity of Boeme, Kendall County (about 12. miles northwest of Leon Springs) in the course of two winter’s residence there by Brown (Auk, 1, 1884:120-124).

Whether this occurrence represents an instance of wandering of non-breeding individuals or.an extension of breeding range in recent years must’be determind by future’ study.-KEITH L. DIXON, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, Berkeley, California, December 20, 1951.

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