LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN JAYS, CROWS, 



AND TITMICE 



ORDER PASSERIFORMES (FAMILIES CORVIDAE APTO PARIDAE) 



By Arthur Cleveland Bent 

 Taunton, Mass. 



Order PASSERIFORMES 

 Family CORVIDAE: Jays, Magpies, and Crows 



PERISOREUS CANADENSIS CANADENSIS (Linnaeus) 

 CANADA JAY 



Plates 1-3 



HABITS 



The name Canada jay, accepted by ornithologists, is seldom used by 

 the backwoodsman, the hunter, the trapper, and the wanderer in the 

 north woods, who know this familiar bird by a variety of other common 

 names. The name most commonly applied to the bird is "whisky jack," 

 with no reference, however, to any fondness for hard liquor ; the old 

 Indian name, "wiss-ka-chon," or "wis-ka-tjon," has been corrupted to 

 "whisky John," and then to "whisl<y jack." It is also often called "camp 

 robber," "meat bird," "grease bird," "meat hawk," "moose bird," 

 "lumber jack," "venison hawk," and "Hudson Bay bird," all of which 

 are quite appropriate and expressive of the bird's character and behavior. 



Although cordially disliked by the trapper and the hunter, because it 

 interferes with their interests, this much-maligned bird has its redeem- 

 ing traits ; it greets the camper, when he first pitches camp, with demon- 

 strations of welcome, and shares his meals with him ; it follows the 

 trapper on his long trails through the dark and lonesome woods, where 

 any companionship must be welcome; it may be a thief, and at times 

 a nuisance, but its jovial company is worth more than the price of its 

 board. 



Throughout the breeding season at least the home of the Canada jay 

 is in the coniferous forests, among the firs and spruces, or not far 

 from them. Dr. Thomas S. Roberts (1936) says of its haunts in north- 

 ern Minnesota: 



During the late winter and the early spring, which is the nesting-season, it is 

 confined closely to dense spruce, arbor vitae, and tamarack swamps and is rarely 



