LAND BIRDS. - 415 



late in winter and in earliest spring, the Blue Jay frequently utters a subdued 

 and somewhat varied warble which is decidedly musical. More than once 

 we have been on the point of passing a tree from which this sound issued 

 under the belief that the author was a Pine Grosbeak, but after seeing the 

 performer in the act we were able to note a decided difference in the songs 

 of the two birds. Dr. Morris Gibbs has called our attention to the same 

 song, and it has been reported by others. The bird is something of a 

 ventriloquist and we believe it possesses considerable power of mimicry. 

 Taken altogether, it is a bird of such strong character, and with so many 

 good points, that in spite of its occasional forays on the eggs and young of 

 other birds we should sorely miss it if exterminated. The present law, 

 which places the Blue Jay among protected birds, is on the whole a wise one. 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Adiilt (sexes alike) : Forehead, spot in front of eye, crescent on chest continued into 

 collar .encircling the neck, deep black; top of head, including conspicuous crest, back, 

 scapulars, rump and upper tail-coverts, bright blue without spots; upper surface of wings 

 bright blue, the secondaries, tertiaries and coverts narrowly barred with black, the greater 

 coverts, secondaries and tertiaries broadly tipped with pure white; tail-feathers blue, 

 barred narrowly with black, all except the middle pair with deep white tips; throat grayish 

 white, with a pm-plish tinge; breast and sides dusky gray; belly and under tail-co^^erts 

 pvu-e white; bill and feet black; iris dark brown. 



Young: Similar, but duller, the crest shorter and markings less sharply defined. 



Length 11 to 12.50 inches; wing 5 to 5.70; tail 5.05 to 5.70; culmen .93 to LOG. 



192. Canada Jay. Perisoreus canadensis canadensis (Linn.). (484) 



Synonyms: Whiskey-jack, Whiskey -John, Moose Bird, Meat Bird, Grease Bird, Venison 

 Bird, Camp Robber, Meat Hawk.- — Corvus canadensis, Linn., 1766. — Garrulus canadensis, 

 Nutt., Aud. — Garrulus fuscus, Vieill. 



Size of the Robin, dark gray above, hghter gray below, bleaching into 

 whitish on forehead and crown and becoming almost black on the back 

 of the head and neck. 



Distribution. — Northern New York, Northern New England, and 

 Northern Michigan northward to Arctic America. 



A bird well known to deerdiunters throughout the northern half of the 

 Lower Peninsula, and in most of the Upper Peninsula, since it hangs about 

 their camps, picking up refuse scraps thrown out by the cook and pecking 

 at meat or game hung up outside. It often becomes perfectly fearless 

 under such circumstances and is sometimes a great nuisance. Ordinarily, 

 however, it is shy and not often seen, although its voice may be constantly 

 heard both summer and winter. Probably it is resident over most of the 

 territory where it is found, but it may be driven somewhat farther south in 

 winter, and there are records of several southward movements of consider- 

 able magnitude; the last of these, in the fall of 1904, extended southward in 

 Ontario almost or quite to the city of Toronto. 



In Michigan the bird is rarely if ever seen south of the Saginaw-Grand 

 Valley and must be considered decidedly rare except in the higher and more 

 densely wooded regions of the northern half of the Lower Peninsula. 

 Professor Cook's statement that this species was seen in winter of 1893 

 on the campus of the Agricultural College (Birds of ]\Iich., 2d ed., 1893, 

 p. 100) is doubtless a mistake, since neither Professor Cook himself nor any 

 of his assistants has any recollection of the fact, and no one else has ever 



