ALEXANDER WILSON. 
43 
spicuous by bis loquacity, and the oddness of his 
tones and gestures. The jay measures eleven inches 
in length; the head is ornamented with a crest of 
light blue or purple feathers, which he can elevate 
or depress at pleasure ; a narrow line of black runs 
along the frontlet, rising on each side higher than 
the eye, but not passing over it, as Catesby has re- 
presented, and as Pennant and many others have 
described it ; back and upper part of the neck, a 
fine light purple, in which the blue predominates ; 
a collar of black, proceeding from the hind head, 
passes with a graceful curve down each side of the 
neck to the upper part of the breast, where it forms 
a crescent ; chin, cheeks, throat, and belly, white, 
the three former slightly tinged with blue ; greater 
wing-coverts, a rich blue ; exterior sides of the pri- 
maries, light blue, those of the secondaries, a deep 
purple, except the three feathers next the body, 
which are of a splendid light blue ; all these, except 
the primaries, are beautifully barred with crescents 
of black, and tipt with white ; the interior sides of 
the wing-feathers are dusky black ; tail long and 
cuneiform, composed of twelve feathers of a glossy 
light blue, marked at half inches with transverse 
curves of black, each feather being tipt with white, 
except the two middle ones, which deepen into a 
dark purple at the extremities. Breast and sides 
under the wings, a dirty white, faintly stained with 
purple ; inside of the mouth, the tongue, bill, legs, 
and claws, black ; iris of the eye, hazel. 
“ The blue jay is an almost universal inhabitant 
