CYANOCITTA. 107 



Key to the Species. 



(I. Cheelcs <aud abdomen whitish ; tail-feathers broadly 

 tipped with white, as also the greater wing- 

 coverts and secondaries cristata, p. 107. 



b. Cheeks blackish; abdomen bluish; no white tips to 

 secondaries or t lil-feathers. 



n'. With no whitish spot over the eye stelleri, p. 108. 



b'. With a patch of silky white over the eye. 



a". Crest black, like the cheeks, throat, and fore 



neck macrolopha, p. 1 10. 



b". Crest blue-black ; cheeks black, breast shaded 



with blue eorumita, p. 111. 



c". Crest bright blue, lores black ; sides of face 



black, shaded with blue diademata, p. 111. 



Although admitting that extreme forms can be found to justify the 

 separation of C. macroloplia into three races, yet there are in the 

 series now before me some examples so thoroughly intermediate that 

 I should not know to which form to refer them with certainty. This 

 is especially the case with the Mexican birds ; and I have two ex- 

 amples which seem to be changing the blue-black crest of G. macro- 

 Upha for the brighter blue one of C. diademata. 



1. Cyanocitta cristata. 



The Blew Jay, Cateshy, Nat. Hist. Carol, i. p. 13, pi. 1-3. 



The Blue Jay, Edwards, Gleanings N. H. v. p. 60, pi. 2-39. 



Le Geav bleu de Canada, Briss. Orn. ii. p. 55 ; Month. PI. Enl. 



pi. 529. 

 Corvus cristatus, Linn. S. N. i. p. 157 ; Wils. Am. Orn. i. p. 11, 



pi. 1. fig. 1 ; Aud. Orn. Biogr. ii. p. 11 ; id. B. Amer. pi. cii. 

 Le geai bleu, Levaill. Ois. I'arad. pi. 45. 

 Garrulus cristatus, rieill. N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. xii. p. 477 : id. Gal. 



Ois. i. pi. 102 ; Sw. ^- Richards. Faun. Bor.-Amer. Birds, p. 29.3 ; 



Audiib. B. Amer. roy. 8vo, iv. p. 110, pi. ccxxi. 

 Pica cristata, Wagler, Syst. A v. Pica, sp. 8. 

 Cyanurus cristatus, Sivains. Faun. Bor.-Amer. Birds, p. 495 ; Baird, 



B. N. Am. p. 495 ; Gray, Hand-l. B. ii. p. 3 ; Coues, Key N.-Am. 



B. p. 165; Allen, Bull. Harv. Coll. ii. p. 297; Baird, Brewer, ^■ 



Ridqivay, N.-Amer. B. p. 273, pi. 42. fig. 3 ; Coues, B. N. West, 



p. 214. 

 Cyanocorax cristatus, Bp. Comp. List B. Eur. ^- N. Amer. p. 27 ; 



Gray, Gen. B. ii. p. 307. 

 Cyanocitta cristata, Strichl.Ann. N. H. 1845, xv. p. 261 ; Cab. Mus. 



Hein. Th. i. p. 221 ; Sdatcr, Cat. Am. B. p. 142. 

 Cyauogarrulus cristatus, Bp. Consp. i. p. 376. 



Adult. Above greyish purple, rather bluer on the hind neck, and 

 more distinctly grey on the sides of the neck ; head very strongly 

 crested, greyish purple, with somewhat of a lilac lustre, the feathers 

 above the eye lUac-grey ; nasal bristles, sides of the face and entire 

 throat whitish, glossed with lilac, the feathers with narrow black 

 shaft-lines ; round the nape a band of black feathers, running in a 

 narrower line behind the ear-coverts (the hinderniost of which are 

 tipped \\-ith black) down the sides of the neck to the fore ne.ck, 



r 2 



