SPECIES 7. CORPUS CANADENSIS. 
CANADA JAY. 
[Plate XXL— Fig. 1.] 
Linn. Sijst. 158. — Cinereous Crow, Arct. ZooL p. 248, JVo. 137. 
— Latham i, 389. — Le Geay Brun de Canada, Brisson, ii, 54. 
— Buffon, III, 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 influence 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 circumstance of mi- 
grating, 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, however, on 
the present occasion, content myself with stating a few particu- 
lars 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 
every thing it can come at — is bold, and comes even into the 
