Canada Jay ; Choughs 



783 



and tamarack forests, coming fearlessly about the camps of hunters and lumber- 

 men as well as the cabins of lone residents. If unmolested, they soon become 

 very familiar, being, as Mr. Manly Hardy says, " the boldest of our birds, except 

 the Chickadee, and in cool impudence far surpass all others. They will enter 

 tents and often alight on the bow of a canoe when the paddle at every stroke 

 comes within eighteen inches of them. I know of nothing that can be eaten that 

 they will not take, and I had one steal all my candles, pulling them out endwise 

 one by one from a piece of birch bark they were rolled in, and another pecked 

 a large hole in a cake of castile soap. A Duck which I had picked and laid 

 down for a few minutes had the entire breast eaten out by one or more of these 

 birds. I have seen one alight in the middle of my canoe and peck away at the 

 carcass of a beaver I had skinned. They often spoil deer saddles by pecking 

 into them near the kidneys. They do great damage to the trappers by stealing 

 the bait set for martens and minks and by eating trapped game ; they will spoil 

 a marten in a short time. They will sit quietly and see you build a log trap and 

 bait it, and then, almost before your back is turned, you hear their hateful ca- 

 ca-ca as they glide down and peer into it. They will work steadily, carrying off 

 meat and hiding it. They eat insects of different kinds, and I have found 

 carrion beetles in their crops; they also eat the fungi and mushrooms growing 

 on stumps, using these largely when other food is scarce. They are fond of 

 the berries of the mountain ash, and, in fact, few things come amiss." Another 

 writer adds, "They will eat anything 

 from soap to plug tobacco." The 

 Canada Jay is an early breeder, build- 

 ing its open bulky nest long before the 

 snow has left the ground, usually plac- 

 ing it in a dense coniferous tree and 

 at no great distance from the ground. 

 The four or five eggs are pale gray 

 or pearly gray, profusely flecked and 

 spotted all over with light olive-brown. 

 The habits and appearance of the other 

 forms are practically identical. 



Choughs. Usually placed with the 

 Corvidce, and forming the final sub- 

 family, is a small group of remarkable 

 and interesting, exclusively Old World, 



birds known as Choughs, the exact systematic position of which can hardly yet 

 be considered as definitely settled. They are typified by the European or Red- 

 billed Chough (Graculus graculus), a large Crow-like bird, about sixteen inches 

 in length, with long, pointed wings and a comparatively long, slightly curved 

 and sharp-pointed bill. The plumage is black throughout with purple and 

 green reflections, the bill and legs being deep vermilion-red. Although evidently 

 of ancient lineage, since remains of this and an allied species have been found 

 in French caves in deposits of the reindeer age, they are now clearly decadent 



FIG. 217. Red-billed Chough, Graculus 

 graculus. 



