10 blue jay. 
ascertain the exact limits of its native regions, would be 
difficult. These, it is highly probable, will be found to be 
bounded by the extremities of the temperate zone. Dr Latham 
has indeed asserted, that the blue jay of America is not 
found farther north than the town of Albany.* This, however, 
is a mistake. They are common in the eastern States, and 
are mentioned by Dr Belknap in his enumeration of the birds 
of New Hampshire, f They are also natives of Newfoundland. 
I myself have seen them in Upper Canada. Blue jays and 
yellow birds were found by Mr M‘Kenzie, when on his 
journey across the continent, at the head waters of the Unjigah, 
or Peace River, in N. lat. 54°, W. Ion. 121°, on the west 
side of the great range of Stony Mountains.:): Steller, who, 
in 1741, accompanied Captain Behring in his expedition for 
the discovery of the northwest coast of America, and who 
wrote the journal of the voyage, relates, that he himself went 
on shore near Cape St Elias, in N. lat. 58° 28', W. Ion. 141° 46', 
according to his estimation, where he observed several species 
of birds not known in Siberia ; and one, in particular, described 
by Catesby, under the name of the blue jay.§ Mr William 
Bartram informs me, that they are numerous in the peninsula 
of Florida, and that he also found them at Natchez, on the 
Mississippi. Captain Lewis and Clark, and their intrepid 
companions, in their memorable expedition across the conti- 
nent of North America to the Pacific Ocean, continued to see 
blue jays for six hundred miles up the Missouri. )| From 
these accounts it follows, that this species occupies, generally 
or partially, an extent of country stretching upwards of seventy 
degrees from east to west, and more than thirty degrees from 
north to south ; though, from local circumstances, there may 
be intermediate tracts, in this immense range, which they 
seldom visit. 
* Synopsis, vol. i. p. 387. 
■f History of New Hampshire, vol. iii. p. 163. 
| Voyages from Montreal, Sfc. p. 216, 4to. London, 1801. 
§ See Steller’s Journal, apud Pallas. 
y This fact I had from Captain Lewis. 
