Subject: Re: Jays and Nutcrackers
Date: Sep 27 10:22:06 1995
From: Dennis Paulson - dpaulson at ups.edu


>Another thing about Gray Jays, they store fat. The Sahaptin Indian name
>for the Gray Jay is, in fact, ya'pash pat'ahla', which means 'fat
>lover'. Steller's Jay is Xwa'shXway, obviously onomatopoetic.


I hope you'll show us how to pronounce that one some day, Gene. I can see
why you enjoy your field, as it would be very interesting to see what
characteristics of animals and plants are emphasized by those people who
name them.

I wonder if Gray (or other) Jays store fat or if they just readily eat it
to keep their furnace stoked during the winter. Because most corvids are
nonmigratory, we rarely find very much fat on them when we prepare them,
unlike migratory species that do deposit a lot of it. Some birds indeed
store fat as a way of enduring the winter, but it seems to be more
characteristic of water than land birds. And the corvid strategy of
caching for the winter probably relieves them of the adaptive strategy of
depositing fat for the winter.

Dennis Paulson, Director phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416