BLUE JAY. 
139 
Blue Jays of twenty thousand, would be as extraordinary an appearance 
in America, as the same number of Magpies or Cuckoos would be in 
Britain. 
It has been frequently said, that numbers of birds are common to 
the United States and Europe ; at present, however, I am not certain 
of many. Comparing the best descriptions and delineations of the 
European ones with those of our native birds, said to be of the same 
species, either the former are very erroneous, or the difference of plu- 
mage and habits in the latter justify us in considering a great proportion 
of them to be really distinct species. Be this however as it may, the 
Blue Jay appears to belong exclusively to North America. I cannot 
find it mentioned by any writer or traveller among the birds of Guiana, 
Brazil, or any other part of South America. It is equally unknown in 
Africa. In Europe, and even in the eastern parts of Asia, it is never 
seen in its wild state. To ascertain the exact limits of its native regions 
would be difScult. These, it is highly probable, will be found to be 
bounded by the extremities of the temperate zone. Dr. Latham has 
indeed asserted, that the Blue Jay of America is not found farther 
north than the town of Albany.* Tliis, 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.']" They are also 
natives of Newfoundland. I myself have seen them in Upper Canada. 
Blue Jays and Yellow-birds were found by Mr. McKenzie, when on his 
journey across the continent, at the head waters of the Unjigah, or 
Peace river, in N. lat. 54°, W. long. 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., long. 
141" 46', according to his estimation, where he observed several s]3ecies 
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. Captains Lewis 
and Clark, and their intrepid companions, in their memorable expedi- 
tion across the continent of North America to the Pacific Ocean, con- 
tinued to see Blue Jays for six hundred miles up the Missouri. || From 
these accounts it follows, that this species occupies, generally or par- 
* Synopsis, vol. i., p. 3S7. 
t Hist. N. Ilamp. vol. iii., p. 163. 
X Voyage from Montreal, &c., p. 210, quarto, Lond. 1801. 
? See Steller's Journal apud Pallas. 
II This fact I had from Captain Lewis. 
