CORVIDjE. 293 



[96.] 1. Garrulus cristatus. (Vieillot.) The Blue Jay. 



Sub-family, Garrulinae, Swains. Genus, Garrulus, Bmss., Auct. 



Blue Jay {Corvus cristatus). Penn. Arct. Zool., ii., No. 138. Wils., i., p. 11, pi. 1, f. 1. 



Garrulus cristatus. Vieil., Ency. Meth., p. 890. Gal. des Ols., pi. 102; good. 



Corvus cristatus. Sab. Frankl. Journ., p. G72. Bonap. Syn., No. C3. 



Twae-twae-shew. Cree Indians. 



This very handsome Jay is common throughout the year in Pennsylvania, 

 frequents the southern States only in winter, and visits the fur-countries, in 

 summer, up to the fifty-sixth parallel, but seldom approaches the shores of 

 Hudson's Bay. The Blue Jay exhibits in perfection most of the qualities, good 

 or bad, for which its congeners are noted. It is equally noisy and inquisitive, 

 alarming the inhabitants of the forest by loud screams when it apprehends 

 danger ; uttering its low, soft, and somewhat musical notes when in security ; and 

 occasionally mocking the surrounding birds with imitations of their various songs. 

 Its eggs have a dilute oil-green colour, with scattered spots of a deeper tint, 

 mixed with others of subdued bluish-grey : their length is 13t lines. 



DESCRIPTION 



Of a specimen, killed on the Saskatchewan plains, in May, 1827- 



Colour. — Crown, crest, back, scapulars, and lesser coverts, bluish or campanula-purple. 

 Chin, throat, and circumference of the eye tinged with pale lilac. Line on the lores, 

 occipital collar, ears, and base of the neck, black. Quills, greater coverts, and tail rich 

 indigo-blue, barred with velvet- bl ack : all, except the central pair of tail feathers*, tipped 

 with white; bars on the lateral tail feathers obsolete, the white tips more extended ; inner 

 webs of the greater quills blackish, with a white mark at the base. Belly, flanks, and thighs 

 lavender or greyish-purple : vent and under tail coverts white. Inside of the wings and tail 

 beneath bluish-grey. Bill and legs black. Irides wood-brown. — R. 



Form, aberrant. Bill longer-f and more compressed than that of the Garrulus Canadensis, 

 and considerably narrower and weaker than that of the European Jay, in comparison with 

 which the notch of the upper mandible is less distinct, the lower mandible weaker, and both 

 much less compressed. Wings rounded; the fifth and sixth quills nearly equal and longest, 

 the third shorter than the sixth: the lesser quills ovately rounded at their tips, which are not 

 mucronated. Tail moderately lengthened, and all the feathers graduated. — Sw. 



* There are eleven bars on the central pair of tail feathers. 



■f The length of the bill varies. A specimen of the G. cristatus, killed on Lake Huron, in perfect plumage, had a 

 bill a quarter of an inch shorter than the one described above. — R. 



