BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 265 



neck; a narrow frontal line and loral region black; feathers on 

 the base of the bill blue like the crown; female rather duller 

 in color and a little smaller. 



Length, 12.25; wing, 5.65; tail, 5.75. 



Habitat, eastern North America to the plains and from the 

 fur countries south to Florida and eastern Texas. 



PERISOREUS CANADENSIS (L.) (484). 



CANADA JAY. 



When I first lived in the State the lumbermen used to tell 

 me a great deal about "the camp bird" as they called it, and 

 my curiosity was no little awakened to learn the identity of the 

 bird but I could persuade none of them to bring me one, as 

 their attachment to it forbid their shooting it, for it was so 

 unsuspicious and tame that it would often come to the door of 

 the cabin and eat the waste and crumbs thrown down to it. At 

 last a good fortune sent one to me and I at once discovered the 

 genuine Canada Jay. It is not a numerous species like the 

 Blue Jay but is a permanent resident along the Lake Superior 

 region and southward about a hundred miles, as I learn from 

 the aforementioned source. It has fallen into my hands in 

 the Big Woods on two occasions, and one or two individuals 

 have been obtained in Sherburne county some time since. Of 

 its habits I know nothing from personal observation, and must, 

 therefore, avail myself of the observations of others. I quote 

 Professor Samuels in his Birds of New England, page 367. 

 He says: — ^'- 1 have had numerous opportunities for observing 

 its habits and I can positively affirm that it is equally rapacious 

 and destructive with the Blue Jay, which it resembles in 

 motions and cry. I once knew of a single pair of these birds 

 destroying the young in four nests of the common Snowbird 

 {Jimco hyemalis) in a single day. I found these nests in an old 

 abandoned lumber road on the morning of June 20th; in the 

 afternoon, when I returned through the same path, every nest 

 was depopulated, and a pair of these jays were lurking in the 

 trees shouting defiance to us while surrounded by the afflicted 

 Snowbirds that were uttering their cries of complaint and 

 sorrow. I emptied both barrels of my gun in the direction of 

 the jay, and I am inclined to think that they have killed no 

 birds since. The f amiliarty with which this species fraternizes 

 with man in the woods is interesting and amusing. I was once 

 'snowed in,' as the expression is, in a large tract of forest, 

 and, with my companions, was obliged to wait until the storm 



