on the " Urraca " Jay and other South American birds. 35


and even now, though about a year old, when hungry will stand

with shuffling wings and baby voice to have tit-bits put down its

throat. The other wild-caught bird is also tame and will take

food from the fingers in the aviary, but it always remains a little

shy and cautious and will not allow itself to be touched, though

nothing pleases the other better than to be scratched and tickled,

especially with a twig or straw, and he will raise his feathers,

stretch his neck and close his eyes in a most laughable way,

thoroughly enjoying a dry shampoo.


I unfortunately omitted to take notes of the young bird's

nestling plumage, which differed markedly from that of the

adult : after one moult he still shows some points of difference

from this latter, viz., that his eyes are brown, though I now

observe that they are gradually changing to the clear, bright

yellow of the other birds ; the inside of his mouth too was flesh-

coloured, but is gradually becoming black like that of the other,

and I have remarked that the soft thick plumage of the breast

and vent, practically pure white in the old bird after his moult,

was in the young one, right up to the roots of the plumes, of a

light creamy yellow : these feathers are, however, so soft and

delicate that the}' get soiled with the greatest ease, and both birds

have made themselves so dirty through bathing and afterwards

hopping about on the earth floor of the place where I am at

present obliged to keep them, that one can no longer distinguish

any such difference. I believe, however, that this part of the

plumage, cream-coloured in the 3 r oung bird, becomes throughout

gradually lighter with age, though in the wild state even I should

think it is very liable to be soiled merely by contact with branches

and so on.


They are otherwise very handsome, boldh'-coloured birds,

considerabty larger than the Brazilian Blue-bearded Jay, described

by Dr. Butler in the magazine for May 1903 : the back, wings and

tail, with the exception of a white bar at the end of the latter,

are of a deep rich blue which glistens very handsomely in the

sunlight : the feathers of the neck and head are of a velvety

black and extend to form a semi-circular cravat across the breast

while, on the back of the head, they puff out, as it were, into a

curious rounded crest like half a black velvet " pom-pom," as I



