190 THE BIRDS 
FAMILY CORVID/E.—CROWS, JAYS, 
MAGPIES, ETC. 
SUBFAMILY GARRULIN/E.—MAGPIES 
AND JAYS. 
GENUS CYANOCITTA. 
[477]. Cyanocitta cristata cristata (Linneus). 
Blue Jay. 
[Jaybird]. 
Rance —Eastern North America, breeding from 
central Alberta, southern Keewatin, Quebec, New Bruns- 
wick, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland south to the Gulf 
States, except Florida, and west to western Nebraska, 
eastern Colorado, and central Texas; casual in New 
Mexico. 
Not a common bird by any means, though more 
numerous among the scrub pines and sand dunes in the 
vicinity of Cape Charles and Cape Henry than elsewhere. 
This well-known robber of other birds’ nests pursues its 
usual habit of eating eggs of smaller birds during the 
breeding season, and often destroying partly grown young. 
My first meeting with these birds in our section was on 
the 31st of May, 1893, when a nest of four young, nearly 
ready to fly, was found in a cedar on the edge of the 
county road leading from Suffolk to Lake Kilby, Nanse- 
mond County. Since that time they seem to be on the 
gradual increase over the whole “Tidewater area.” Only 
twice have I seen birds on the lower end of the James 
