494 



SYSTEMA TIC SYNOPSIS. — PA SSERES - OSCIXES. 



1.40 long by 0.85 to 1.00 broad, averaging 1.30 X 0.90, pale drab, soinetiine.s with a greenish 

 tint, heavily dotted, dashed, aud blotched with purplish and variniis brown shades, which usu- 

 ally cover the whole surfiice and sometimes hide the ground color: laid April-June or even 

 July, iu different latitudes. 



P. nut'talli. (To Thos. Nuttall.) Yellow-billed Magpie. Bill and bare space about 

 eye yellow. Smaller. Otherwise like the last, of which it is a perpetuated accident ! The 

 European Magpie sometimes shows the same thing, and in some other species, like Psilorhinus 

 morio, the bill is indifferently black or yellow. California, common W. of the Sierras Nevadas. 

 General habits, nest, and eggs the same as those of the other species. 



CYANOCIT'TA. (Gr. /ci^ai/o?, Jcuanos, blue ; kItto, kitta, a jay.) Crested Blue Jays. 

 Conspicuously crested ; wings and tail blue, black-barred ; bill and feet black. Length 11.00- 

 12.00 ; wing or tail 5.00-6.00. Nostrils large, subcircular, but concealed. Wing aud tail of 

 equal lengths, both rounded. Hind claw large, equalling or exceeding its digit in length. 

 There are two subgenera and species of this beautiful genus, one hght blue aud white, short- 

 crested, eastern, standing quite alone, with its subspecies florincolu; the other dusky-bodied, 

 long-crested, western, running into three subspecies. 



Analysis of Subgenera, Species, and Subspecies. 



Purplish-blue, whitening below, with a black collar. (Cyanocitta proper.) 



The ordinary form of Eastern N. Am cristata 



The smaller form of Florida c.florincola 



Sooty-brownish or -blackish, bluing on body behind, wings aud tail; both the latter black-barred. [Subgenus 

 Steliekocitta. ) 



Sooty-blackish ; little if any blue on forehead ; none about eye ; wing-coverts unbarred stelleri 



Sooty-blackish ; but blue on forehead and above eye ; wing-coverts unbarred ........ i. anneclens 



Sooty-brownish, blue on forehead ; little if any blue about eye ; wing-coverts unbarred .... .s. frontalis 



Sooty-brownish, the crest quite black. Bluish-white streaks on forehead and about eye; wing-coverts black- 

 barred •5- macrolopha 



(Subgenus Cyaxocitta.) 



C. crista'ta. (Lat. cristata, crested. Fig. 334.) Blue Jay. ^ : Purplish-blue, below 



pale purplish-gray, whitening 

 _^ ^— ~^ ~"^ — _~_~^^^^=— on throat, belly, aud crissum. 



" xX A black collar across lower 



-^>; . -,^'- ^^^ throat and up sides of neck 



aud head behind crest ; a black 

 '■^^i^' frontlet bordered with whitish. 

 ^ _ Wings aud tail pure rich blue, 

 '"'*^-'''-' ■** ~" with black bars; greater cov- 



erts, secondaries, and tail-feath- 

 ers, except central ones, broadly 

 tipped with pure white ; tail 

 S'^:;^/'^'"'^ ^/y^^\f^ '^^ .' ■'X''^^ much rounded, graduated over 

 ■ --^^?f^>-^ ' ^^. P>.,^C-~,^r^ an inch. Length 11.00-12.00; 



'^."^•^ • vX'* ''^tent 16.00-17.50; wing and 



^ ;/|^ -J>%Wy tail, each, 5.00-6.00; biiri.25; 



A^^l.^ /'^-''W'kv^^ tarsus 1.35. 9 similar, not so 



^^v ( % -^ richly blue ; smaller. There is 



much difference in size between 



FIG. 33-l.-Blue Jay, reduced. (Sheppard del. Nichols sc.) uortheru and Southern bred 



birds, as iu Ageheus. Eastern N. Am., especially U. S., but N. to Hudson's Bay; W. to the 

 central plains; a very abundant resident or half-migratory bird, breeding throughout its range; 



