JAY 



469 



infaustus of Linnaeus and the Siberian Jay of English writers, 

 which ranges throughout the pine-forests of the north of Europe and 

 Asia, and the second the Corviis canadensis of the same author, or 

 Canada Jay, occupying a similar station in America. The first is 

 one of the most entertaining l)irds in the Avorld. Its versatile cries 

 and actions, as seen and heard by those who penetrate the solitude of 

 the northern forests it inhabits, can never be forgotten by one who 

 has had experience of them, any more than the pleasing sight of its 

 rust-coloured tail, which an occasional gleam of sunshine will light 

 up into a brilliancy quite unexpected by those who have only sur- 

 A^eyed the bird's otherwise gloomy a]")pearance in the glass-case of a 

 museum. It seems scarcely to know fear, obtruding itself on the 

 notice of any passenger who invades its haunts, and should he halt, 

 makins; itself at once a denizen of his bivouac. In confinement it 

 speedily becomes friendly, but suitable food for it is not easily 

 found. Linnaeus seems to have been under a misapprehension 

 when he applied to it the trivial epithet it bears ; for by none of 

 his countrymen is it deemed an unlucky bird, but rather the 

 reverse. In fact, no one can listen to the cheery sound of its 

 ordinary calls with 

 any but a hopeful 

 feeling. The Canada 

 Jay, or " Whiskey- 

 Jack " (the corruption 

 probably of a Cree 

 name), seems to be of 

 a similar nature, but 

 it jDresents a still more 

 sombre coloration, its 

 nestling plumage,^ in- 

 deed, being thoroughly 

 Corvine in appearance 

 and suggestive of its 

 being a pristine form. 

 As thou2;h to make 

 amends for the dull 

 plumage of the species 

 last mentioned. North 

 America offers some 

 of the most brilliantly 

 coloured of the sub- 

 family, and the com- 

 mon Blue Jay of eastern Canada and the older States of the Union, 

 Cyamirus cristatus, is one of the most conspicuous birds of the trans- 



1 In this it was described and figured {F. Bor.-Am. ii. p. 296, pi. 55) as a 

 distinct species, G. hrachyrhynchus. 





Blue Jat. 



