

SPECIES 7. CORPUS CANADENSIS. 



CANADA JAY. 

 [Plate XXL Fig. 1.] 



LINN. Syst. 158. Cinereous Crow, Jlrct. Zool. p. 248, No. 137. 

 LATHAM i, 389. Le Geay Brun de Canada, BRISSON, n, 54. 

 BUFFON, in, 117. 



WERE I to adopt the theoretical reasoning of a celebrated 

 French naturalist, I might pronounce this bird to be a debased 

 descendant from the common Blue Jay of the United States, 

 degenerated by the influence of the bleak and chilling regions 

 of Canada; or perhaps a spurious production, between the Blue 

 Jay and the Cat-bird; or what would be more congenial to the 

 Count's ideas, trace its degradation to the circumstance of mi- 

 grating, some thousand years ago, from the genial shores of 

 Europe, where nothing like degeneracy or degradation ever 

 takes place among any of God's creatures. I shall, however, on 

 the present occasion, content myself with stating a few particu- 

 lars better supported by facts, and more consonant to the plain 

 homespun of common sense. 



This species inhabits the country extending from Hudson's 

 Bay, and probably farther north, to the river St. Lawrence ; also 

 in winter the inland parts of the District of Maine, and northern 

 tracts of the states of Vermont and New York. When the season 

 is very severe, with deep snow, they sometimes advance farther 

 south; but generally return northward as the weather becomes 

 more mild. 



The character given of this bird by the people of those parts 

 of the country where it inhabits, is, that it feeds on black moss, 

 worms, and even flesh; when near habitations or tents, pilfers 

 every thing it can come at is bold, and comes even into the 



