CANADA JAY. 
263 
rarely three young at a time, which are at firet 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-hirdj and, when caught, pine away, though 
their appetite never fails them ; notwithstanding all 
■w'hich iiigemiity and good qualities, they are, as we are 
informed, detested by the natives.* 
The only individuals of this species I ever met with 
in the U’nit(‘d States were on the shores of the 
Mohawk, a short way above, the Little Falls. It was 
about the last of November, and tlie ground deeply 
covered nith snow. There were three or four in 
company, or within a small distance of each other, 
flitting leisurely along the roadsiile, keeping up a kind 
of low chattering with one another, and seemed nowise 
apprehensive at my a])])roach. 1 soon secured the 
whole. On dissection, 1 found their stomachs occupied 
by a few spiders, and the aurelia? of some insects, 1 
could perceive no difl’erence between the plumage of 
the male and female. 
The Canada jay is eleven inches long, and fifteen in 
extent ; back, ‘wings, and tail, a dull leaden gray, the 
latter long, cuneiform, and tipt with dirty white ; interior 
vanes of the wings, brown, and also partly tipt with white ; 
plumage of the head, loose and jn oiniuent ; the forehead 
and feathers covering the nostril, as v\ ell as the whole 
lower parts, a dirty brownish « bite, which also passes 
round the bottom of the neck like a collar ; part of the 
crown and hind head, black ; bill and legs, also black ; 
eve, dark hazel. The whole plumage on the back is 
long, loose, uuwehbed, and in great ahnndance, as if to 
protect it from the rigours of the regions it inhabits. 
A n-cntleman of observation, who resided for many 
years'’ near the North River, not far from Hudson, in 
the State of New York, informs me, that he has par- 
ticularly observed this bird to arrive there at the com- 
• Heakxe's Journey, p. 405. 
