BLUE ]AY~{Cyanocitta cristata.) 
Head crested; upper parts grayish blue, marked with black and 
white; a black band passing across the neck back of the head, down the 
sides of the neck and across the breast; tail blue; all but the outer 
feathers barred with black and all but the middle pair broadly tipped 
with white. 
Length about eleven and three-fourths inches. 
Resident. 
Favorite Haunts. In the woods, often visiting orchards and shade 
trees. 
Field Marks. A bird a little larger than the robin that is chiefly blue 
in color. ^ 
Note. A whistling bell-note, and a nasal scream, "Jay, jay, jay." 
After U. S. Biological Survey. 
The blue jay is more common in the state than he appears. Many 
faults are laid to the blue jay. Chief among these is that he eats the 
eggs and young of other birds, and the farmers' corn. Believing this many 
boys and men sometimes shoot this bird at sight. But investigation has 
proved that the blue jay seldom robs birds' nests, and eats the farmers' 
corn only when he cannot get readily other kinds of food. His food is 
28 
