2 
BLUE JAY. 
has represented, 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 primaries, 
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 of the woods, 
frequenting the thickest settlements as well as the deepest 
recesses of the forest, where his squalling voice often alarms 
the deer, to the disappointment and mortification of the hunter ; 
one of whom informed me, that he made it a point, in 
summer, to kill every jay he could meet with. In the charming 
season of spring, when every thicket pours forth harmony, the 
part performed by the jay always catches the ear. He appears 
to be among his fellow musicians what the trumpeter is in a 
band, some of his notes having no distant resemblance to the 
tones of that instrument. These he has the faculty of 
changing through a great variety of modulations, according to 
the particular humour he happens to be in. When disposed 
for ridicule, there is scarce a bird whose peculiarities of song 
lie cannot tune his notes to. When engaged in the blandish- 
ments of love, they resemble the soft chatterings of a duck, 
