BLUE JAY. 139 



Blue Jays of twenty thousand, would be as extraordinary an appearance 

 in America, as the same number of Magpies or Cuckoos would be in 

 Britain. 



It has been frequently said, that numbers of birds are common to 

 the United States and Europe ; at present, however, I am not certain 

 of many. Comparing the best descriptions and delineations of the 

 European ones with those of our native birds, said to be of the same 

 species, either the former are very erroneous, or the difference of plu- 

 mage and habits in the latter justify us in considering a great proportion 

 of them to be really distinct species. Be this however as it may, the 

 Blue Jay appears to belong exclusively to North America. I cannot 

 find it mentioned by any writer or traveller among the birds of Guiana, 

 Brazil, or any other part of South America. It is equally unknown in 

 Africa. In Europe, and even in the eastern parts of Asia, it is never 

 seen in its wild state. To ascertain the exact limits of its native regions 

 would be difficult. These, it is highly probable, will be found to be 

 bounded by the extremities of the temperate zone. Dr. Latham has 

 indeed asserted, that the Blue Jay of America is not found farther 

 north than the town of Albany.* This, however, is a mistake. They 

 are common in the Eastern States, and are mentioned by Dr. Belknap 

 in his eilumeration of the birds of New Hampshire."}" They are also 

 natives of Newfoundland. I myself have seen them in Upper Canada. 

 Blue Jays and Yellow-birds were found by Mr. McKenzie, when on his 

 journey across the continent, at the head waters of the Unjigah, or 

 Peace river, in N. lat. 54°, W. long. 121°, on the west side of the great 

 range of Stony Mountains.! Steller, who in 1741 accompanied Captain 

 Behring in his expedition for the discovery of the north-west coast of 

 America, and who wrote the journal of the voyage, relates, that he 

 himself went on shore near Cape St. Elias, in N. lat. 58° 28' W., long. 

 141° 46', according to his estimation, where he observed several species 

 of birds not known in Siberia ; and one, in particular, described by 

 Catesby under the name of the Blue Jay.§ Mr. William Bartram 

 informs me, that they are numerous in the peninsula of Florida, and 

 that he also found them at Natchez, on the Mississippi. Captains Lewis 

 and Clark, and their intrepid companions, in their memorable expedi- 

 tion across the continent of North America to the Pacific Ocean, con- 

 tinued to see Blue Jays for six hundred miles up the Missouri. || From 

 these accounts it follows, that this species occupies, generally or par- 



* Synopsis, vol. i., p. 387. 



t Hist. N. Hamp. vol. iii., p. 163. 



X Voyage from Montreal, &c., p. 216, quarto, Lond. 1801. 



I See Steller' s Journal apud Pallas. 



II This fact I had from Captain Lewis. 



