470 JENNY—JOHN-CROW 
atlantic woods. ‘The account of its habits by Alexander Wilson is 
known to every student of ornithology, and Wilson’s followers have 
had little to do but supplement his history with unimportant details.+ 
In this bird and its many allied forms, coloration, though almost 
confined to various tints of blue, seems to reach its climax, but want 
of space forbids more particular notice of them, or of the members 
of the other genera Cyanocitta, Cyanocorax, Xanthura, Psilorhinus, 
and more, which inhabit various parts of the Western continent. It 
remains, however, to mention the genus Cissa, including many beauti- 
ful forms belonging to the Indian Region, and among them the 
C. speciosa and C. sinensis, so often represented in Oriental draw- 
ings, though doubts may be expressed whether these birds are not 
more nearly related to the Pies than to the Jays. 
JENNY, a child’s nickname of the WREN, in the character of 
Robin Redbreast’s wife. 
JERFALCON, a vulgar corruption of Gerfalcon, that is GyR- 
FALCON. = 
JOHN-CROW, the local name in Jamaica for what is elsewhere 
in the New World called the Turkey-Buzzard, the Vultur aura of 
Linneeus, and Cathartes or Catharista aura of most 
writers ; to which, in 1874, Mr. Ridgway (NV.-4m. 
B. iii. p. 337) applied the generic term of Lhino- 
gryphus, and Dr. Sharpe (Cat. B. Br. Mus. i. p. 25) 
CaTHarTes aura. that of inops. It is the most widely spread of 
(After Swainson.) : E : 
American VULTURES, ranging from the Sas- 
katchewan valley in Canada, under 55° of northern latitude, to 
Tierra del Fuego, which is about as far south. This fact shews 
its success in the struggle for existence ; but the zoologist should 
not neglect the lesson taught by another fact. In Jamaica, 
within a few years, the John-Crow, though there protected by 
human law, has been nearly extirpated by the introduction of 
the Mongoose (EXTERMINATION, p. 227, note 4), shewing how in- 
adequately a successful animal can compete with conditions for 
which it has not been prepared, and to which it is suddenly 
exposed—the result of thus upsetting a natural law being fatal. 
No notice of this bird, however brief, should omit allusion to the 
controversy that once raged around it, in regard to the sup- 
posed olfactory powers ascribed to it and other members of the 
Sarcorhamphidx as well as to those of the analogous Family Vultwride. 
Happily the whole mystery was dispelled by the simple “conjecture” 
(as he modestly called it) of Canon Tristram (Jbis, 1859, p. 280), 
1 The ‘‘ Blue Jay ” of a recent American humourist would, however, from the 
locality assigned to his inimitable story, appear to be, not this species, but one 
of its western kindred—American ornithologists must determine which. 
