io BLUE JAY. 



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 enumeration of the birds of 

 New Hampshire.f They are also natives of Newfoundland. 

 I myself have seen them in Upper Canada. Blue jays and 

 yellow birds were found by Mr M'Kenzie, when on his jour- 

 ney across the continent, at the head waters of the Unjigah, 

 or Peace Kiver, in N. lat. 54°, W. Ion. 121°, on the west side 

 of the great range of Stony Mountains. j 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. Ion. 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. Captain Lewis and Clark, and their intrepid 

 companions, in their memorable expedition across the conti- 

 nent of North America to the Pacific Ocean, continued to see 

 blue jays for six hundred miles up the Missouri. || From 

 these accounts it follows, that this species occupies, generally 

 or partially, an extent of country stretching upwards of seventy 

 degrees from east to west, and more than thirty degrees from 

 north to south ; though, from local circumstances, there may 

 be intermediate tracts, in this immense range, which they 

 seldom visit. 



* Synopsis, vol. i. p. 387. 



t History of New Hampshire, vol. iii. p. 163. 



t Voyages from Montreal, &c, p. 216, 4to, London, 1801. 



§ See Steller's Journal, apud Pallas. 



11 This fact I had from Captain Lewis. 



