260 FLORIDA JAY. 



some of them without webs. From the cheeks and sides of the neck, 

 the blue color passes down along the breast, and forms a somewhat 

 obscure collar ; the under wing, and under tail-coverts are strongly 

 tinged with blue, which color is also slightly apparent on the femorals ; 

 the inferior surface of the wings and tail is dark silvery gray ; the base 

 of the plumage is plumbeous ash, blackish on the head : the wings are 

 four and a half inches long, and reach, when closed, hardly beyond the 

 coverts of the tail, which is five and a half inches long, extending 

 beyond the wings three and a half; the spurious feather is extremely 

 short ; the first primary (often mistaken for the second), is as short as 

 the secondaries ; the five succeeding are subequal, the third and fourth 

 being rather the longest. The tail is somewhat wedge-shaped, the outer 

 feather being half an inch shorter than the next, and one inch and a 

 half shorter than the middle one. The tarsus is an inch and a quarter 

 long, and black, as well as the toes and nails. 



The female is perfectly similar to the male, being but a trifle less in 

 size, and quite as brilliant in plumage. 



Two years since it fell to our lot to describe, and apply the name of 

 Ultramarine Jay ( Garrulus ultramarinus), to a species found in Mexico, 

 closely resembling this, and to which Mr. Swainson, in his Synopsis of 

 Mexican Birds, has lately given the name of Garrulus sordidus, his 

 specimen being probably a young one. The principal distinctive char- 

 acters may be found it its larger dimensions, but especially in the shape 

 of its tail, which is perfectly even, and not in the least cuneiform, as it 

 generally is in the Jays. The back, though it is also somewhat inter- 

 mixed with dusky, is much more blue than in our species, and indeed 

 the whole azure color is somewhat more brilliant and silky ; the bluish 

 collar is wanting, and the under wing, but especially the under tail- 

 coverts, are much less tinged with blue. The wings, moreover, are 

 proportionally larger. 



