140 CANADA JAY. 
tially, an extent of country stretching upwards of seventy degrees from 
east to west, and more tlian thirty degrees from north to south ; though, 
from local circumstances, there may he intermediate tracts in this 
immense range, which they seldom visit. 
Species VII. CORVUS CANADENSIS. 
CANADA JAY. 
[Plate XXI. Fig. 1.] 
Linn. Sijst. 158. — Cinereous Crow, Arct. Zool. p. 248, No. 137. — Latham, i., 389. — 
Le Geatj Brun de Canada, Brisson, ii., 54. — Buffon, hi. 117. 
Were I to adopt the theoretical reasoning of a celebrated French 
naturalist, I might pronounce this bird to be a debased descendant from 
the common Blue Jay of the United States, degenerated by the influ- 
ence of the bleak and chilling regions of Canada ; or perhaps a spurious 
production, between the Blue Jay and the Cat-bird ; or what would be 
more congenial to the Count's ideas, trace its degradation to the circum- 
stance of migrating, some thousand years ago, from the genial shores 
of Europe, where nothing like degeneracy or degradation ever takes 
place among any of God's creatures. I shall, howev.er, on the present 
occasion, content myself with stating a few particulars better supported 
by facts, and more consonant to the plain homespun of common sense. 
This species inhabits the country extending from Hudson's Bay, and 
probably farther north, to the river St. Lawrence ; also in winter the 
inland parts of the district of Maine, and northern tracts of the states 
of Vermont and New York. When the season is very severe, with deep 
snow, they sometimes advance farther south ; but generally return 
northward as the weather becomes more mild. 
The character given of this bird by the people of those parts of the 
country where it inhabits, is, that it feeds on black moss, worms, and 
even flesh ; — when near habitations or tents, pilfers everything it can 
come at — is bold, and comes even into thei* tent to eat meat out of the 
dishes ; watches the hunters while baiting their traps for martens, and 
devours the bait as soon as their backs are turned ; that they breed 
early in spring, building their nests on pine trees, forming them of sticks 
and grass, and lay blue eggs ; that they have two, rarely three young 
at a time, which are at first quite black, and continue so for some time ; 
that they fly in pairs ; lay up hoards of berries in hollow trees ; are 
seldom seen in January, unless near houses ; are a kind of Mock -bird ; 
and when caught pine away, though their appetite never fails them; 
