296 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



a low chattering-, especially when agitated by the prospect of a supply of food*. 

 It hoards berries, pieces of meat, &c, in hollow trees or between layers of the 

 bark of decaying- birches, by which it is enabled to pass the winter in comfort, 

 and to rear its young- before the snow is off the ground, and indeed earlier than 

 any other bird in the fur-countries. Its nest is concealed with such care, that none 

 of the Indians with whom I spoke on the subject had seen it ; but both Hutchins 

 and Hearne inform us, that " it is generally built in a fir-tree, of sticks and 

 grass ; the eggs are blue ; and the young brood, which are quite black, take 

 to flight by the middle of May." 



DESCRIPTION 



Of a male, killed on the Saskatchewan. 



Colour. — Forehead, crown, cheeks, and chin, greyish-white ; hind head and nape pitch- 

 black ; dorsal plumage brownish-grey ; quills and tail dark lead-grey, tipped with white ; the 

 shafts dark umber. Under plumage yellowish-grey, approaching to broccoli-brown. Bill 

 and legs black. — R. 



Form aberrant. Bill, except in its shortness and its rather rounder ridge, greatly 

 resembling that of the Blue Jay ; the nostrils also are more thickly covered with feathers. 

 In this, and particularly in the next species, the shafts of the lesser quills terminate in small, 

 but very distinct points. — Sw. 







• 



Dimensions. 















Inch. 



Lin. 





Inch. 



Lin. 





Inch. 



Lin. 



Length, total 



u 







Length of bill above . 



. 



91 



Length of middle nail 



. 



*i 



,, of tail 



5 



9 



,, of tarsus 



1 



H 



„ of hind toe 



. 



4 



„ of wing 



. 5 



6 



„ of middle toe . 



. 



9 



„ of its nail 



. 



4* 



,, of bill to rictus . 







11* 









' 







[99.] 4. Garrulus brachyrynchus. (Swainson.) Short-billed Jay. 



Sub-family, Garrulinse, Swains. Genus, Garrulus, Auctor. Sub-genus, ? 



Jeeza. Copper Indians and Dog-ribs. 



Ch. Sp. Garrulus brachyrhynchus, plumheus : capite austeriori, fronlula mente orbitis auricularibusque 



nigrescentibus. 

 Sp. Ch. Short-billed Jay, bluish-grey, darker about the head; frontlet, chin, circumference of the orbits and 



ears blackish. 



Plate lv. 



Not having analysed the contents of this sub-family, we know not, with certainty, 

 whether this Jay and the Whiskey-Jack are types of a distinct form, or merely 



* The similarity between the manners of this bird and those of the Parus atricapillus has been pointed out by the 

 Prince of Musignano. The resemblance extends also to their tints of colour, their attitudes, and their voices. — R. 



