772 THE LONG-CRESTED JAY. 
son. Thus being non-migratory, their permanent habitat may be 
given with some accuracy; it includes the wooded Rocky Moun- 
tain region at large. To the north, and especially about the Co- 
lumbia River, they become mixed up with Steller’s jay, which is 
the boreal extreme, reaching into Alaska; while in the opposite 
direction they run into the Cyanura coronata on the Table Lands 
of Mexico. 
The imposing crest of this jay merits more than a passing al- 
lusion. It does not acquire its full size and beauty, after the July 
moult, until the approach of cold weather; but late in the fall, 
and all through the winter, this ornament is as striking as at the 
breeding season. It grows to be two inches and a half long, and 
is composed of many slender feathers with loosened barbs. The 
longest ones grow from the crown, while shorter ones fill in from 
behind and before, to make an elegant pyramid when standing 
close together, or a bundle of plumes when shaken apart, as repre- 
sented in the figure, taken from a perfect spring specimen. This 
crest is jet black, but it is trimmed in front with a lacing of bluish 
white, laid on in two rows running a third way up; the colored 
feathers are of a hard, dense nature, looking something like little 
bits of metal, and besides these, there are spots of like color 
about the eyelids, as already mentioned. The crest can be raised 
or lowered, and opened or shut at pleasure; and its rapid move- 
ments, when the bird is excited, are highly expressive. The jay 
seems to be proud of his top-knot, and generally holds it pretty 
high, unless he happens to be on a birds’-nesting expedition, which 
I am sorry to say is not seldom, when he lowers his standard, and 
makes himself as small as possible, as he skulks silently about, 
looking, and no doubt feeling, like the thief that he is. 
All the jays make their share of noise in the world; they fret 
and scold about trifles, quarrel over nothing, and keep everything 
in a ferment when they are about. The particular kind we are 
now talking about is powise behind his fellows in these respects ; 
a stranger to modesty, and forbearance, and the many gentle qual- 
‘ities that charm us in some little birds and endear them to us, he 
is a regular fillibuster, ready for any sort of adventure, that prom- 
‘ises sport or spoil, even if spiced with danger. Sometimes he 
prowls about alone, but oftener has a band of choice spirits with 
him, who keep each other in countenance — for our jay is a coward 
at heart like other bullies—and share the plunder on the usual 
