CANADA JAY. 
233 
meat from the dishes, even whether fresh or salt. It 
has also the mischievous sagacity of watching the hun- 
ters set their traps for the martin, from which it purloins 
the bait. Its appetite, like that of the Crow, appears 
omnivorous. It feeds on worms, various insects, and their 
larvae, and on flesh of different kinds ; lays up stores of 
berries in hollow trees for winter ; and, at times, with the 
Rein-deer, is driven to the necessity of feeding on Lich- 
ens. The severe winters of the deserts he inhabits, 
urges him to seek support in the vicinity of habitations. 
Like the common Jay, at this season, he leaves his native 
woods to make excursions after food, trying every means 
for subsistence ; and, tamed by hunger, he seeks boldly the 
society of men and animals. They are such praters as 
to be considered Mocking-birds, and perhaps supersti- 
tiously dreaded by the aborigines. They commonly fly 
in pairs or rove in small families, are no way difficult to 
approach, and keep up a kind of friendly chattering, some- 
times repeating their notes for a quarter of an hour at a 
time, immediately before snow or falling weather. When 
caught, they seldom long survive, though they never ne- 
glect their food. Like most of their genus, they breed 
early in the spring, building their nests, which are formed 
of twigs and grass, in the Pine trees. They are said to lay 
blue eggs, probably to the amouut of 3 or 4, as they have 
rarely more than 2 or 3 young at a brood, which, at first, 
are perfect Crows, or quite black, and continue so for 
some time. 
The Canada Jay is 11 inches in length, and 15 in extent. The 
tail is long and cuneiform. Interior vanes of the wings brown, and 
also partly tipped with white ; plumage of the head loose and prom- 
inent. The drab of the under parts extends so as to form a sort of 
collar round the neck. The bill and legs black. Irids dark hazel. 
The sexes appear alike in color. 
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