BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 265 
neck; a narrow frontal line and loral region black; feathers on 
the base of the bill blue like the crown; female rather duller 
in color and a little smaller. 
Length, 12.25; wing, 5.65; tail, 5.75. 
Habitat, eastern North America to the plains and from the 
fur countries south to Florida and eastern Texas. 
PERISOREUS CANADENSIS (L.). (484). 
CANADA JAY. 
When I first lived in the State the lumbermen used to tell 
me a great deal about ‘‘the camp bird” as they called it, and 
my curiosity was no little awakened to learn the identity of the 
bird but I could persuade none of them to bring me one, as 
their attachment to it forbid their shooting it, for it was so 
unsuspicious and tame that it would often come to the door of 
the cabin and eat the waste and crumbs thrown down to it. At 
last a good fortune sent one to me and I at once discovered the 
genuine Canada Jay. It is not a numerous species like the 
Blue Jay but is a permanent resident along the Lake Superior 
region and southward about a hundred miles, as I learn from 
the aforementioned source. It has fallen into my hands in 
the Big Woods on two occasions, and one or two individuals 
have been obtained in Sherburne county some time since. Of 
its habits I know nothing from personal observation, and must, 
therefore, avail myself of the observations of others. I quote 
Professor Samuels in his Birds of New England, page 367. 
He says:—‘‘I have had numerous opportunities for observing 
its habits and I can positively affirm that it is equally rapacious 
and destructive with the Blue Jay, which it resembles in 
motions and cry. I once knew of a single pair of these birds 
destroying the young in four nests of the common Snowbird 
(Junco hyemalis) in a single day. I found these nests in an old 
abandoned lumber road on the morning of June 20th; in the 
afternoon, when | returned through the same path, every nest 
was depopulated, and a pair of these jays were lurking in the 
trees shouting defiance to us while surrounded by the afflicted 
Snowbirds that were uttering their cries of complaint and 
sorrow. I emptied both barrels of my gun in the direction of 
the jay, and I am inclined to think that they have killed no 
birds since. The familiarty with which this species fraternizes 
with man in the woods is interesting and amusing. I was once 
‘snowed in,’ as the expression is, in a large tract of forest, 
and, with my companions, was obliged to wait until the storm 
