16 NATURAL HISTORY. 



surface of the body pale vinous ; the thighs whitish ; and the vent and under tail-coverts pure 

 white. 



THE BLUE JAYS (Cyanocitta). 



As we have before mentioned, the true Jays are strictly confined to the Old World, and their 

 place is taken in America by a group of Corvine birds which are called Blue Jays. Of these, the 

 most familiar is 



THE COMMON BLUE JAY (Cyanocitta crintnta}. 



Although in plumage he differs from the ordinary type of Garrulus, yet in his habits the Blue Jay 

 seems to be in many respects similar. He is found over the greater part of North America, and where 

 he is persecuted he becomes exceeding shy and suspicious ; but in some parts of the United States, 

 where protection is afforded him, he becomes quite tame and familiar, breeding close to houses and 

 sometimes even in the streets of large towns. Thus Dr. Brewer states that in 1843 he saw a nest of 

 this Jay filled with young in a tree standing near the house of Mr. Audubon in the city of New York. 

 The same gentleman does justice to the utility of the Jay in the following paragraph : " Dr. Kirtlaiid 

 has informed me of the almost invaluable services rendered to the farmers in his neighbourhood by the 

 Blue Jays in the destruction of Caterpillars. When he first settled on his farm he found every apple 

 and wild cherry-tree in the vicinity extensively disfigured and denuded of its leaves by the larva? of 

 the Clisiocampa americana, or the Tent Caterpillar. The evil was so extensive that even the best 

 farmers despaired of counteracting it. Not long after the Jays colonised upon his place he found 

 they were feeding their young quite extensively with these larvse, and so thoroughly that, two or three 

 years afterwards, not a worm was to be seen in that neighbourhood ; and more recently he has 

 searched for it in vain, in order to rear cabinet specimens of the Moth." * 



In size the Blue Jay measures about eleven inches and a half, and is of a greyish-purple colour 

 above, the crest being also of this colour ; round the hind neck is a collar of black extending down to 

 the fore neck, and across the forehead is another narrow line of black ; under surface of body pale 

 lilac brown, inclining to white on the lower abdomen and under tail-coverts ; the cheeks are whitish, 

 and the tail-feathers are broadly tipped with white, as also the greater wing-coverts and secondaries. 

 These last few characters distinguish the Common Blue Jay from a group of allied species with black 

 cheeks, blue on the abdomen, and no white tips to the secondary quills or tail-feathers. These are 

 Steller's Blue Jay (C. stelleri), the Long-crested Blue Jay (C. macrolopha}, and the two Mexican Blue 

 Jays (C. coronata and C. diademata), the latter being scarcely sepai-able as a species. The ordinary 

 Blue Jay is spread over Canada and the northern and eastern United States. C. stelleri takes its 

 place on the Pacific side of North America, from Columbia to Sitka, which in the Sierra Nevada is 

 represented by an allied race, called by Mr. Bidgway C. frontalis. C. macrolopha is the species of the 

 Rocky Mountains, and C. diademata of the highlands of Mexico. 



THE LONG-TAILED BLUE JAYS (Xantfiura). 



These are also inhabitants of Central and South America, and are little known. They are all 

 birds of variegated plumage and of handsome appearance. The tail is rather lengthened, exceeding 

 the wing in length. It is unfortunate that the name Xantkura (yellow-tailed) has to be adopted for 

 them, as some of them have the tail l)lue. Indeed, only four out of fourteen species can be said to 

 possess the yellow tail; and one of these, known as the Green Jay (Xanthura luxuosa), penetrates 

 into Texas, and can thei-efore be considered as a North American bird. From the work of Messrs. 

 Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway we cull a short note on the last-mentioned species : " Colonel George A. 

 McCall, Inspector-General of the United States Army, was the first person to collect these birds 

 within our limits. He obtained them in the forests which border the Rio Grande, on the south- 

 eastern frontier of Texas. There he found them all mated in the month of May, and he felt no 

 doubt that they had their nests in the extensive and almost impenetrable thickets of mimosa, 

 commonly called chaparral. From the jealousy and pugnacity which these birds manifested on the 

 approach, or appearance even, of the large boat-tailed Blackbirds of that country (Quiscalus mac-runts), 

 which were nesting in great numbers in the vicinity, Colonel McCall was satisfied that the Jays were 



* " History of North American Birds," Vol. II., p. 276. 



