Blue Jay 285 



This genus, containing two species now divided into ten geographical 

 races, is confined to North America, including the high plateau of Mexico 

 and Guatemala. Only one species is commonly met with in Colorado, 

 but the eastern Blue Jay occurs as a straggler. 



Key of the Species. 



A. Below blue, becoming dusky on the chest. 



C. stelleri diademata, p. 286. 



B. Below dirty white, with a black collar across the chest. 



C. cristata, p. 285. 



Blue Jay. Cyanocitta cristata. 



A.O.U. Checkhst no 477— Colorado Records— H. G. Smith 05, 

 p. 81 ; 08, p. 186 ; Henderson 05, p. 82. 



Description. — Adult — General colour above blue, with a purplish 

 tinge ; feathers of the crown elongated and erectile, forming a crest ; 

 patch round nostrils, above and below the eye, chin, throat and rest of 

 under-parts greyish-white ; lores, a few frontal feathers and a post- 

 ocular band which extends back and joins a crescentric band across the 

 chest black ; primary-coverts, secondaries and tail cobalt blue, narrowly 

 barred with black and tipped with white (except the two central 

 rectrices) ; primaries dark ashy on the inner, plain azure -blue on outer 

 webs ; iris brown, bill and legs black. Length about 11-0 ; wing 5-10 ; 

 tail 5-10; culmen -90; tarsus 1-3. Yoimg birds are very similar to 

 the adults, but the colours are less bright and less sharply defined. 



Distribution. — Eastern North America from Manitoba and Nova 

 Scotia south through eastern Colorado and eastern Texas to the Gulf 

 of Mexico, but not Florida. The Blue Jay has only recently been 

 recorded from Colorado. Possibly it has only lately reached our border 

 as Brunner (" Birds of Nebraska," p. 70) states that in that State it is 

 rapidly spreading westward. H. G. Smith obtained one specimen, 

 a female, on 21st of May, 1904, close to Wray in Yuma co., near the 

 Nebraska border, and saw several others, some of which were engaged 

 in building a nest. In the following year he found them nesting in 

 Dry Willow Creek, some little distance south-east of Wray, and in 1907 

 obtained a female at Holly, in the south-east corner of the State ; while 

 Miss Jeimie M. Patten (Henderson 05) identified a specimen 

 on November 1st, 04, at Yuma, some twenty-five miles further east. 

 There is a female in the Aiken collection, taken by Aiken close to 

 Limon on May 27th, 1905, and I am told that it was seen by Mr. 

 Schulze in Colorado Springs, October 10th, 1903, so that it will 

 probably be found more commonly in the future. 



