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THE CANA^DA JAY. 



CoRvus Canadensis, Linn. 



PLATE CVII. Male and Female. 



I HAVE found this species of Jay breeding in the State of Maine, 

 where many individuals belonging to it reside the whole year, and where 

 in fact so many as fifteen or twenty may be seen in the course of a day by 

 a diligent person anxious to procure them. In the winter, their numbers 

 are constantly augmented by those which repair to that country from 

 places farther north. They advance to the southward as far as the upper 

 parts of the State of New York, where the person who first gave intima- 

 tion to Mr Wilson that the species was to be found in the Union, shot 

 seven or eight one morning, from which number he presented one to the 

 esteemed author of the " American Ornithology," who afterwards pro- 

 cured some in the same neighbourhood. This species is best known in 

 Maine by the name of the " Carrion Bird," which is usually applied to it 

 on account of its carnivorous propensities. When their appetite is satis- 

 fied, they become shy, and are in the habit of hiding themselves amongst 

 close woods or thickets ; but when hungry, they shew no alarm at the 

 approach of man, nay, become familiar, troublesome, and sometimes so 

 very bold as to enter the camps of the " lumberers," or attend to rob 

 them of the bait affixed to their traps. My generous friend, Edward 

 Harris, Esq. of New York, told me that while fishing in a birch canoe on 

 the lakes in the interior of the State of Maine, in the latter part of the sum- 

 mer of 1 833, the Jays were so fearless as to alight in one end of his havk, 

 while he sat in the other, and help themselves to his bait, taking very 

 little notice of him. 



The lumberers or wood-cutters of this State frequently amuse them- 

 selves in their camp during their eating hours, with what they call " trans- 

 porting the carrion bird." This is done by cutting a pole eight or ten 

 feet in length, and balancing it on the sill of their hut, the end outside 

 the entrance being baited with a piece of flesh of any kind. Immediately 

 on seeing the tempting morsel, the Jays alight on it, and while they are 

 busily engaged in devouring it, a wood-cutter gives a smart blow to the 



