42 BULLETIN 191, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



interesting things have already been discovered. [See Auk, vol. 57, pp. 520-522, 

 1940, and vol. 58, p. 102, 1941, for other similar performances 1 



Behavior. — The jay commonly progresses through the air steadily 

 and rather slowly, although with full and regular quick flips of the 

 wings. He keeps on an even keel and maintains a characteristically 

 level flight. The long axis of the body is parallel to the ground, although 

 his beak appears to point slightly downward, perhaps only because his 

 crest gives the mipression ot a downward-sloping profile. 



A company of jays, like their small relatives the chickadees, almost 

 always fly across a wide, open space one at a time, at some distance 

 from each other. They generally fly directly to the place where they 

 are about to alight, rarely deviating from their course by swerving 

 from side to side, and, on arriving at their perch, often come to a stop 

 deftly upon it in perfect balance, although they may sometimes alight, 

 with head held proudly high, after a short upward-slanting sail. I 

 have seen a jay come to rest on a slender vertical rod (a radio aerial) 

 as neatly as any kingbird. 



Sometimes, in making short flights, jays will undulate a little, sailing 

 with wings held open longer than in the steady, level flight. Now, as 

 they fly overhead, slowly and silently, they flap the wings back and 

 without an instant's pause fan them out full again. Here there is a 

 short pause with the wings expanded, during which the bird sinks a 

 little in the air before the next stroke carries him on and upward 

 again — very different from the undulating flight of a woodpecker, which 

 closes its wings on the downward plunge. 



William Brewster (1937) describes an unusual method of flight which 

 he observed at Lake Umbagog. He writes: "1895, September 20. — 

 About eight o'clock this morning I was standing on a wooded knoll 

 near our camp at Pine Point, watching some small birds, when a sound 

 resembling that of strong wind blowing through pine-tops came from 

 directly overhead. It could not be ascribed to such an origin, however, 

 for the air was then perfectly calm. The mystery remained unsolved 

 until an hour or so later v/hen I saw a dozen Blue Jays moimt in a 

 compact flock, by a spiral course, to a height of several hundred feet 

 above the tallest trees and then dash almost straight down together, with 

 half-closed wings, like so many stooping falcons, thereby prodticing a 

 loud rushing sound exactly like that heard earlier in the morning." 



The motions of a company of jays as they flit about among the 

 branches of a tree are surprisingly easy, light, and graceful. The wings 

 move slowly, like great moth's wings, yet the birds alight accurately 

 on the branches, or float to the ground from which they often almost 

 bounce up to a high perch again. With all their energy, alertness, and 



