SONG-BIRDS. Blue Jay 



of the first signs of autumn, and they drop and settle in the 

 lane and by the pool as if to warn the leaves that they 

 must soon follow. 



FAMILY CORVID^E: CROWS, JAYS, MAGPIES. 



SUB-FAMILY GARRULIN^: JAYS. 

 Blue Jay: Cyanocitta cristata. 



PLATE VI. FIGS. 12-13. 



Length : 11-12 inches. 



Male and Female : Lead-blue above, head finely crested, a black collar 



uniting with some black feathers on the back. Below grayish 



white. Wing coverts and tail a bright blue barred transversely 



with black. 

 Song : A whistling bell note in the breeding-season, the usual cry a 



screaming "Jay, jay, jay ! " 



Season : Resident. Also abundant in the migrations. 

 Breeds : Through range. 

 Nest : Bulky, in appearance like that of the Crow, but only one- quarter 



the size. 

 Eggs : 5-6, about an inch long and broad for the length, brownish 



gray, with brown spots. 

 Range : Eastern North America to the Plains, and from the Fur 



Countries south to Florida and eastern Texas. 



Here is a bird against whom the hand of every lover 

 of Song-birds should be turned in spite of its beautiful 

 plumage and many interesting ways ; for the Jay is a can- 

 nibal not a whit less destructive than the Crow. When you 

 see them in small flocks circling the trees in early spring 

 and gathering their crop of chestnuts in the fall and acorns 

 in early winter, you admire their brilliant colouring, jaunty 

 crest, and bold flight, and merely wish, perhaps, that their 

 cry was less harsh. 



But what do these birds do with themselves in the period 

 between April and September, in their breeding and moult- 

 ing season, when they are comparatively inconspicuous, for 

 they go into the woods to breed and become almost silent, 

 but it is a case of still waters running deeply ? Day by 

 day they sally out of their nesting-places to market for them- 

 N 177 



