346 ' BULLETIN 50. UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



The possession of a conspicuous crest will readily serve to distin- 

 guish members of this genus from any other Amei-ican jays except 

 Calocilta, which has the tail excessively elongated and graduated and 

 the nostrils exposed; and certain species of the purely tropical genera 

 Cissilopha, Cyanocorax, and Urolevca, in all of which (as in Calocitta) 

 the crest is very different in shape, and the size much greater. 



The relationships of Cyanocitta are decidedly mt^i Aphelocoma and 

 related American genera, and not with the Palsearctic genus Garruhis, 

 to which Cyanocitta bears some superficial resemblance. Garrvhis 

 has the bill much deeper and more compressed, with the gonys strongly 

 convex; the tail much shorter than the wing and nearly even; the 

 primaries much longer, more pointed, and rigid, and the style of col- 

 oration very different. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES OF CYANOCITTA. 



a. Under parts whitish (more brownish gray on breast and sides), interrupted by a 



black collar across chest; greater wing-coverta, secondaries, and rectricea 



broadly tipped with white. {Cyanocitta crislata.) 



h. Larger and brighter colored (adult male averaging wing 131.6, tail 129..3, exposed 



culmen 25.1, tarsus 35) ; white terminal spot on outermost rectrix averaging 



26.9 in length. (Eastern North' America, except Florida.) 



Cyanocitta cristata cristata (p. 347) 

 hh. Smaller and duller in color (adult male averaging wing 126, tail 119.9, exposed 

 culmen 24.4, tarsus 33.5) ; while terminal spot on outermost rectriy averaging 

 24.1 in length. (Peninsula of Florida. ) .Cyanocitta cristata florincola (p. 350) 

 aa. Under parts blue (sometimes dusky or sooty anteriorly); wing-coverts, second- 

 aries, and rectrices without white tips. ( Cyanocitta stelleri. ) 

 b. No white spot over eye. 

 c. Head (including crest) and neck black or sooty black; back sooty slate color 

 to sooty black; rump, upper tail-coverts, and posterior under parts dull 

 cerulean blue \o china blue. 

 d. Larger (adult male averaging wing 156.2, tail 143.1 ) ; coloration darker, with 

 the blue more purplish. (Queen Charlotte Islands and Prince of Wales 



Island, British Columbia. ) Cyanocitta stelleri carlottae (p. 354) 



dd. Smaller (adult male averaging not more than wing 151.5, tail 140); colora- 

 tion less dark, with blue less purplish. 

 e. Back and foreneck dark sooty to sooty slate-black, that of foreneck grad- 

 ing more gradually into blue of under parts; forehead usually with few 

 streaks of blue (sometimes with none); blue color darker; size slightly 

 larger (adult male averaging wing 151.5, tail 138.6, exposed culmen 31, 

 tarsus 46.5). (Coasts of Puget Sound northward to eastern shores of 

 Cook Inlet, including Vancouver Island and other coast islands except 

 Prince of Wales and Queen Charlotte group.) 



Cyanocitta stelleri stelleri (p. 351) 

 ee. Back and foreneck. slaty brown or brownish slate, that of foreneck more 

 abruptly contrasted with blue of under parts; forehead more conspicu- 

 ously streaked with blue; blue color lighter, more greenish; throat 

 more extensively streaked with pale grayish; size slightly less (adult 

 male averaging wing'150.5, tail 140, exposed culmen 27.7, tarsus 44.5). 

 (Coast district from Monterey County, California, northward to the 

 Columbia Eiver.a) Cyanocitta stelleri carbonacea (p. 354) 



a The area between the Columbia Eiver and Puget Sound occupied by intergradea 

 between this and C. s. stelleri. 



