2IO NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



good by destroying many injurious insects, and plants many forest trees. 

 I have seen him carrying acorns and chestnuts near my camp on Canan- 

 daigua lake, and hiding them at a considerable distance from the trees 

 where he found them, evidently with the idea of picking them up later. I 

 had heard that the Blue jay was a tree planter but I had always supposed that 

 he planted them simply by dropping the nuts while flying from place to 

 place in the forest ; but in this instance, he carried the acorns and placed 

 them under the dead leaves. Going to the spot I uncovered them myself 

 and was surprised to find that sometimes at least, like the gray squirrel, 

 he actually plants the nuts in the ground evidently intending to store 

 them for future use. In the fall and winter the Blue jay frequently attacks 

 the corn standing in the shock and also visits the granaries to peck at the 

 kernels which are exposed between the cracks of the boards. This slight 

 destruction of grain in the fall but more particularly his wanton destruc- 

 tion of young birds, perhaps more than overbalances the good he does. 



Perisoreus canadensis canadensis (Linnaeus) 

 Canada Jay 



Plate 71 



Corvus canadensis Linnaeus. Syst. Nat. 1766. Ed. 12. 1:158 

 Garrulus canadensis DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 130, fig. 55 

 Perisoreus canadensis canadensis A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 3. 1010 



p. 226. No. 484 



perisoreus, derivation uncertain, perhaps from Trspcawpeyw, to heap up around, refer- 

 ring either to the bird's instinct to hoard food, or to the large, high-walled nest; canaden- 

 sis, of Canada 



Description. Tail long and rounded ; frontlet, nasal tufts, sides of the 

 head, throat and forechest dull white; occiput and back of neck blackish; 

 upper parts dusky gray; tips of the wing feathers and tail feathers indis- 

 tinctly tipped with whitish; under parts dull grayish. Young similar 

 but darker, without any white about the head and throat. 



Length 11-12 inches; wing 5.6-5.9; tail 5.6-6.4. 



Distribution. The Canada jay inhabits the boreal region of eastern 

 America from Mackenzie, Keewatin and northern Quebec to Alberta, 

 northern Minnesota, Michigan, New York and Maine. It rarely straggles 



