49 i THE CANADA JAY. 



Canada Jay {Perisoreus canadensis) feed her full-grown 

 young. So great is the difference in color of the old and 

 young of this bird, that Swainson, in the " Fauna Boreali- 

 Americana," figured the young as another species. About 

 11 inches long and 15 in extent, the mature bird is dusky- 

 ash, the feathers over the back and wing-coverts, tinged 

 toward the tip with reddish; forehead, throat, ear-coverts, 

 front and sides of the neck, and tips of the wing and tail 

 feathers, white; under parts, light reddish, tinged with ash; 

 bill and feet, black. Male and female are alike. 



The young are deep dusky-ash, with the head blackish; 

 streak from the base of the bill across the ear-coverts, tips 

 of the greater wing-coverts and of the wing and tail 

 feathers, and the vent, white; bill, bluish- white, tipped with 

 black. Thus the young are so much darker than the parent 

 as to appear like another species. 



The brood referred to were full-grown, and yet were be- 

 ing fed as assiduously as if they had been callow nestlings. 

 Their noisiness, when the mother-bird arrived with food, 

 first attracted my attention, the noise being a sort of hiss- 

 ing squeal, loud enough to startle anything in the neighbor- 

 hood. The parent also had a squealing note, and another 

 sounding like choo-cJioo-choo-choo, the note, perhaps, which 

 Audubon compared to light strokes on an anvil. 



The Canada Jay, or Meat Hawk, or Whiskey Jack, or 

 Carrion-bird, may be most readily allured by its stomach. 

 Ordinarily shy and distant, like other Jays, it will come so 

 near as to appear almost domesticated, wherever there is 

 some suitable food to attract it. Butchering-day among 

 the farmers is sure to bring him. Perching on the nearest 

 available object, and closely eying the whole proceeding, 

 he will frequently drop down almost within reach to pick 

 up a fresh morsel. The fisherman on some inland lake or 



