•IKi MICIIKIAN BIRD LIFE. 



observed the bird here. It is not improbable that before the pine forests 

 were cut off this species may have been a winter visitor as far south as 

 Shiawassee county at least, and possibly much farther south along the Lake 

 Michigan shore. The most southern record which we can find is the 

 statement by Mr. Newell A. Eddy that he found it common on the south 

 branch of the Pine River, north of Bay City, in November, 1879. 



It is common in suitable places throughout the Upper Peninsula and has 

 been recorded repeatedly from Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, 

 Crawford, Oscoda and Alpena counties in the Lower Peninsula. We 

 have a skin in the College collection taken in Alpena county, November 

 22, 1898, b}^ A. B. Durfee, and two skins of young birds, still in immature 

 plumage, taken near Iron Mountain, Dickinson county, May 20, 1894, by Mr. 

 E. E. Brewster. This may be considered pretty good proof that the bird 

 nested in that county, for it is not hkely that these birds would have 

 wandered south during the spring. Mr. O. B. Warren states that the species 

 is common and nests in ^larquette county, but we have been unable to 

 obtain a single nesting record for the state. The interesting account given 

 by Mr. O. B. Warren (Auk, XVI, 1899, pp. 12-19), with excellent photo- 

 graphs of nest and 3'oung, relates to Mahoning, Minnesota, not Michigan, 

 although the statement occurs in the article that the observations were 

 made at "Mahoning, Mich." This nest was built between February 22 

 and March 12, 1898, and confirms the statement made by various other 

 authors that nesting is always very early in the season, the eggs being laid 

 almost invariably in March. 



According to Captain Bendire the eggs are usually three or four, although 

 five are sometimes found. Their ground color is gray, flecked and spotted 

 over the entire surface with various shades of brown and lavender. They 

 average 1.16 by .82 inches. 



The Canada Jay is said to be fully as destructive to the eggs and young 

 of wild birds as his near relative the Blue Jay, but we have no data tending 

 either to confirm or disprove these statements. In Michigan the bird 

 has been but rarely noted in summer, and so far as we know there have been 

 no observations made on its summer food. 



Dr. Kneeland, in his Birds of Keweenaw Point (1859) says: "This 

 bird is common in Avinter, and a great pest to the trappers, from its pro- 

 pensity to steal their poisoned baits. Like the Raven it often falls a victim 

 to its greediness, by devouring meat containing strychnine set for foxes 

 and the fur-bearing animals." 



According to Seton Thompson "Many of its notes resemble those of the 

 Blue Jay, but it has a number distinctly its own. Some of these are 

 musical, but most of them are harsh and discordant." 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Adult (sexes alike): No crest; forehead and anterior part of crown white or erayish 

 white, the nasal tufts usually buffy or rusty; crown, occiput and nape brownish black to 

 sooty black, bordered behind by a broad grayish white or ashy collar; rest of upper surface 

 brownish or slaty-gray, the wing and tail feathers tipped with whitish; cheeks, chin, throat 

 and chest white or grayish-white; rest of under parts plain gray, very variable in shade, 

 but always darker than the chest; bill and feet black; iris brown. 



Young: Nearly uniform slate-gray, as they leave the nest, with whitish tips on wing 

 and tail feathers, but no trace of white forehead or throat; later the forehead becomes much 

 lighter than the occiput, but the full plumage is not assumed until the following spring. 



Length 11 to 12.10 inches; wing 5.60 to 5,90; tail 5,65 to 6.35; culmen .95 to 1.08. 



