BIRDS OF KANSAS. 377 



mnd, and lined sparingly with grasses and a few feathers; upon 

 tliis a rough, dome-like structure of sticks, ingeniously woven, 

 completely covers the nest, leaving a small hole on the side for 

 entrance. Several of the nests that I found in Colorado had 

 two openings, and opposite to each other, doubtless to make 

 room for and protect the long tail of the bird, which must be 

 more or less injured where but one entrance is constructed. 

 Eggs six to nine, 1.30x.92; light green, thickly speckled and 

 spotted with drab to purplish brown; in form, oval to ovate. 



Genus CYANOCITTA Strickland. 



•'Head crested. Wings and tail blue, with transverse black bars; head and 

 back of the same color. Bill rather slender, somewhat broader than high at 

 the base; culmen about equal to the head. Nostrils large, nearly circular; con- 

 cealed by bristles. Tail about as long as the wings, lengthened, graduated. 

 Hind claw large, longer than its digit." 



Cyanocitta cristata (Linn.). 



BLUE JAY. 

 PLATE XXIV. 



Resident; abundant in the eastern portion of the State; com- 

 mon along the streams, where skirted with trees, to a little beyond 

 the center; not observed in the extreme western part. Begin 

 laying the last of April. 



B. 434. K. 289. C. 349. G. 146, 184. U. 477. 



Habitat. Eastern United States, except Florida (where they 



are replaced by C. cristata florincola),' north into the fur regions 



of the British possessions; west to the Great Plains. 



Sp. Char. "Crest about one-third longer than the bill. Tail much gradu- 

 ated. General color above light purplish blue; wings and tail feathers ultra- 

 marine blue; the secondaries and tertials, the greater wing coverts, and the 

 exposed surface of the tail, sharply banded with black and broadly tipped with 

 white, except on the central tail feathers. Beneath, white; tinged with purplish 

 blue on the throat, and with bluish brown on the sides. A black crescent on 

 the fore part of the breast, the horns passing forward and connecting with a half 

 collar on the back of the neck. A narrow frontal line and loral region black; 

 feathers on the base of the bill blue, like the crown. Female: Bather duller in 

 color, and a little smaller." 



