THE CANADA JAY. 
125 
narrowly tipped with white. Young very dull slate-colour, paler on the 
abdomen, on the head blackish, wings and tail as in the adult, their tips of 
a duller white. 
Male, 11, 15. 
Rare, and only in winter, from Pennsylvania to New York. More 
abundant in Massachusetts. Common from Maine northward to the Fur 
Countries. Columbia river. 
The description of two young birds, one procured in Labrador, the other 
in Nova Scotia, is, as to form and plumage, the same as that of the adult, the 
latter, however, being as follows : The bill, instead of being compressed, 
is broader than high at the base, and moderately compressed only toward 
the end ; the fifth quill is longest, the sixth and fourth nearly equal ; and 
the plumage is remarkably soft, full, and loose, as in many Titmice. 
In the young the plumage is still looser, the filaments being distinct, but 
the feathers are shorter than in the adult. The wings and tail are similar. 
The bill is dusky, with the edges of both mandibles yellow ; the feet as in 
the adult. The general tint is very deep dull slate-colour, paler on the 
abdomen ; the feathers at the base of the bill and the ear-coverts greyish- 
black ; inner webs of the quills brownish-black ; edges of the outer primaries 
yellowish-grey, of the rest bluish-grey ; tips of all the quills, the three outer 
excepted, greyish-white ; tail approaching to dull leaden-grey, broadly tip- 
ped with dull yellowish-white. Another young bird is similar, but with 
the bill darker, and a band of dull white from the base of the lower man- 
dible to the ears, as in the individual represented in the plate. 
The specimen presented by Mr. Peale, and preserved in spirits, presents 
the following characters. The tongue is triangular, flattened above, taper- 
ing to a blunt emarginate point, and having a single prominent papilla at 
the base on each 'side. The oesophagus is 3J inches long, tapering, its 
diameter anteriorly \ inch, below i. Proven triculus 4J twelfths in breadth. 
The stomach is broadly elliptical, compressed, 11 twelfths long, 9 twelfths 
broad ; its muscular coat I twelfths in thickness, not divided into distinct 
lateral and inferior muscles ; the tendons elliptical, their greatest diameter 
4 twelfths ; the epithelium thin, tough, brownish-red, longitudinally marked 
with broad rugae. The contents of the stomach are numerous remains of 
insects, a large hairy caterpillar, 2 inches long, and two persimon seeds. 
The intestine is 17£ inches long. 
The trachea is 2 inches 5 twelfths long, flattened, tapering from 2 twelfths 
in breadth to 1 twelfth, of about 50 well ossified rings. The inferior laryn- 
geal muscles are large, and four in number on each side, exclusive of the 
Bterno-tracheal. The bronchi are wide, of about 12 cartilaginous half rings. 
