350 
CROWS AND JAYS 
49. Family Corvids. Crows, Jays, Etc. (Fig. 61.) 
The Corvidce are represented in all parts of the world except New 
Zealand. They number about two hundred species, of which twenty-one 
are found in North America. Our Crows and Jays inhabit wooded 
regions, and are resident throughout the year, except at the northern 
limits of their range. They are omnivorous feeders, taking fruits, seeds, 
insects, eggs, nestlings, and refuse. 
Crows and Jays exhibit marked traits of character and are possessed 
of unusual intelligence. Some systematists place them at the top of the 
avian tree, and, if their mental development be taken into consideration, 
they have undoubted claims to this high rank. 
KEY TO THE SPECIES 
A. Plumage black. 
a. Wing about 15*00; bill over 2*50 . 486a. Raven- 
b. Wing about 13*00; bill about 2*00. 488. Crow. 488a. Florida Crow. 
c. Wing about 11*00; bill about 1*50 ...... 490. Fish Crow. 
B. Plumage bluish, or grayish. 
a. Back blue; tail tipped with white; a black breast-patch. 
477. Blue Jay. 477a. Florida Blue Jay. 
b. Back bluish gray; tail not tipped with white; throat and breast indis- 
tinctly streaked with whitish 479. Florida Jay. 
c. Back gray; back of head and nape blackish; forehead whitish. 
484. Canada Jay. 484c. Labrador Jay. 
477. Cyanocitta eristata cristata {Linn.). Blue Jay. (Fig. 61a.) 
Ads. — Upperparts grayish blue; underparts dusky whitish, whiter on the 
throat and belly; forehead, and a band passing across the back of the head 
down the sides of the neck and across the breast, black; head crested; ex- 
posed surface of wings blue, the greater wing-coverts and secondaries barred 
with black, and all but the middle pair broadly tipped with white, this white 
tip rarely less than 1*00 in width on the outer feather. L., 11*74; W., 5*14; 
T., 5*19; B., 1*04. 
Range. — E. N. Am., breeding from cen. Alberta, s. Keewatin, Que., 
N. B., N. S., and N. F. s. to the Gulf States, except Fla., and w. to w. Nebr., 
e. Colo., and cen. Tex.; casual in N. M., migratory in the n. part of its range. 
Washington, rather rare P. R., common T. V., Apl. 28-May 15; Sept. 
15-Oct. 15. Ossining, tolerably common P. R. Cambridge, common P. R., 
abundant T. V., Apl. and May; Sept, and Oct. N. Ohio, common P. R. 
Glen Ellyn, common P. R. SE. Minn., common P. R. 
Nest, of twigs, compactly interwoven, lined with rootlets generally in a 
tree crotch 10-20 feet up. Eggs, 4-6, pale olive-green or brownish ashy, 
rather thickly marked with distinct or obscure spots of varying shades of 
cinnamon-brown, 1*10 x *85. Date, Charleston, S. C., Apl. 25; Cambridge, 
Apl. 28; se. Minn., May 2. 
The Blue Jay, I fear, is a reprobate, but, nothwithstanding his fond- 
ness for eggs and nestlings, and his evident joy in worrying other birds, 
there is a dashing, reckless air about him which makes us pardon his 
faults and like him in spite of ourselves. Like many men, he needs the 
inspiration of congenial company to bring out the social side of his dis- 
position. Household duties may perhaps absorb him, but certain it is 
that when at home he is very different from the noisy fellow who, with 
equally noisy comrades, roams the woods in the fall. How his jay , jay 
