254: CROWS, JAYS, ETC. 



Crows and Jays exhibit marked traits of character and are possessed 

 of unusual intelligence. Some systematists place them at the top of 

 the Avian tree, and, if their mental development be taken into con- 

 sideration, they have undoubted claims to this higli rank. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES. 



A. Plumage black. 



a. Wing about 15-00; bill over 2-50 . . 486a. Raven. 



b. Wing about 13-00; bill about 2-00. 



488. Am. Crow. 488a. Floktda Crow. 



c. Wing about 11-00; bill about 1-50 490. Fish Crow. 



B. Plumage bluish or grayish. 



a. Back blue ; tail tipped with white ; a black breast-patch. 



477. Blue Jay. 477a. Florida Blue Jay. 



b. Back bluish gray ; tail not tipped with white ; throat and breast indis- 

 tinctly streaked with whitish 479. Florida Jay. 



c. Back gray ; back of head and nape blackish ; forehead whitish. 



484. Canada Jay. 484c. Labrador Jay. 



I 477. Cyanocitta cristata (Linn.). Blue Jay. (See Fig. 44, a.) 

 Ad. — Upper parts grayish blue; under parts dusky whitish, whiter on the 

 throat and belly ; forehead, and a band passing across the back of the head 

 down the sides of the neck and across the breast, black ; head crested ; ex- 

 posed surface of wings blue, the greater wing-coverts and secondaries barred 

 with black and tipped with white ; tail blue, all but the outer feathers barred 

 with black, and all but the middle pair broadly tipped with white, this white 

 tip rarely less than 1-00 in width on the outer feather. L., 11-74; W., 5-14; 

 T., 5-19; B., 1-04. 



Jiange. — Eastern North America ; breeds from Florida to Newfoundland ; 

 generally resident throughout its range. 



Washington, rather rare P. R., common T. V., Apl. 28 to May 15 ; Sept. 15 

 to Oct. 15. Sing Sing, tolerably common P. R. Cambridge, common P. R., 

 abundant T. V., Apl. and May ; Sept. and Oct. 



Nest, of rootlets, compactly interwoven, generally in a tree crotch fifteen 

 to twenty feet up. Eggs, four to six, pale olive-green or brownish ashy, rather 

 thickly marked with distinct or obscure spots of varying shades of cinnamon- 

 brown, 1-10 X -85. 



The Blue Jay. I fear, is a reprobate, but, notwithstanding his fond- 

 ness for eggs and nestlings, and his evident joy in worrying other 

 birds, there is a dashing, reckless air about him which makes us par- 

 don his faults and like him in spite of ourselves. 



Like many men, he needs the inspiration of congenial company to 

 bring out the social side of his disposition. Household duties may 

 perhaps absorb him, but certain it is that when at home he is very dif- 

 ferent from the noisy fellow who, with equally noisy comrades, roams 

 the woods in the fall. 



How his jay, jay rings out on the frosty morning air! It is a sig- 



