502 5 YSTEMA TIC S YNOPSIS. — PA SSERES — OSCINES. 



generally — back rather bluish-gray than br<nvnish-gray, very white head with narrow nuchal 

 dark baud — produce a bird diflering so obviously from the ordinary Canada Jay as to look 

 like a diflfereut species at gunshot range, as I can affirm from repeated observation of the bird 

 in various mountains of the West. The changes of plumage with age are parallel. Size at a 

 maximum. Length 12.00-13.00; extent 17.00; wing and tail, each, about 6.00; bill 1.00 or 

 more; tarsus 1.40; middle toe and claw 1.00. Rocky Mt. region of the U. S., especially New 

 Mexico and Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana, N. to British America, north- 

 ward shading into typical canadensis. The high mountains of Colorado furnish the extreme 

 cases. The bird is resident throughout its range, and breeds up to an elevation of at least 

 10,000 feet ; nest and eggs indistinguishable from those of the stock form ; eggs laid in March. 

 P. obscu'rus. (Lat. obscurns, obscure, dark.) Obscure Jay. Oregon Jay. In general, 

 similar to P. canadensis, but apparently distinct. Adult ^ 9 '■ Above, rather brown than 

 plumbeous ; feathers of back with obvious whitish shaft-stripes ; below, white or whitish, 

 nearly uniform over all under parts; dark hood extensive, sooty black, but forehead and nasal 

 plumules white or whitish ; wings and tail brownish-gray, with little whitish edging or tipping. 

 Rather small; length 11.00 or less; wdng and tail 5.50; bill 0.90 ; tarsus 1.25. Young differ 

 as before, but are dark dingy brown rather than sooty blackish. Pacific coast region from N. 

 California through Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia; common; re.sident ; habits 

 the same as those of the Canada Jay; nest and eggs indistinguishable; breeding season Mar.- 

 May. P. c. obscurus of former eds. of the Key, now rated as a separate species : see Sharpe, 

 Brit. Mus. Cat. iii, J 877, pi. v. for colored figures of this and P. c. capitalis. 

 P. o. gris'eus. (Lat. griseus, gray.) Gray Jay. Described as like obscurus, but larger 

 (except feet) and grayer ; back " deep mouse gray instead of brown " ; quills and tail " between 

 gray (No. 6) and smoke gray, instead of drab gray"; under parts grayish-white instead of 

 brownish-white. California to British Columbia, E. of the Coast and Cascade ranges. 

 RiDGW. Auk, July, 1899, p. 2.55. 



Family STURNID^ : Old World Starlings. 



A family confined to the Old World: difficult to characterize, owing to the variety of 

 forms it includes. Apparently related to Icteridce, from which distinguished by presence of ten 

 primaries, the 1st short or quite spurious ; and certainly close to the Corr,id<B, with which they 

 share 10 primaries and some other characters. There is also evidence of affinity with the 

 Ploceidce. There are about 40 genera and 140 species of Sturnidce., among them several cele- 

 brated birds of Europe and Asia, as those called Religious Grackles, Mina-birds, etc. ; many 

 are also splendidly iridescent, as in the genus Lamprocolius and others. The only genus with 

 which we have here to do is Sturnus, belonging to the 



Subfamily STURNIN/E: Typical Starlings. 



STUR'NUS. (Lat. sturnus, a stare or starting.) Starlings. Bill shaped somewhat as in 

 Sturnclla or Icterus, but widened and flattened ; rather shorter than head ; eulmen and gonys 

 about straight, both gently rounded in transverse section, and at tip ; eulmen rising high on 

 forehead, dividing prominent antise which extend into well-marked nasal fossae; a conspicuous 

 nasal scale, overarching nostrils ; tomial edges of mandibles dilated, especially those of upper 

 mandible; commissure obtusely angulated ; sides of lower mandible extensively denuded and 

 somewhat excavated ; feathers filling interramal space ; no bristles about bill. Wings long 

 and pointed; 1st primary spurious and very small ; 2d and 3d longest, rest rapidly graduated. 

 Tail of 12 feathers, emarginate, little more than half as long as wing. Feet short ; tarsus of 

 strictly Oscine podotheca, scutellate and laminiplantar, about as long as middle toe without its 



