Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored 
Canada Jay 
(Perisoreus canadensis ) Crow and Jay family 
Called also: WHISKY JACK OR JOHN; MOOSE-BIRD; MEAT- 
BIRD; VENISON HERON; GREASE-BIRD; CANADIAN 
CARRION-BIRD; CAMP ROBBER 
Length — 1 1 to 12 inches. About two inches larger than the robin. 
Male and Female — Upper parts gray; darkest on wings and tail; 
back of the head and nape of the neck sooty, almost black. 
Forehead, throat, and neck white, and a few white tips on 
wings and tail. Underneath lighter gray. Tail long. Plu- 
mage fluffy. 
Range — Northern parts of the United States and British provinces 
of North America. 
Migrations — Resident where found. 
The Canada jay looks like an exaggerated chickadee, and 
both birds are equally fond of bitter cold weather, but here the 
similarity stops short. Where the chickadee is friendly the jay is 
impudent and bold; hardly less of a villain than his blue relative 
when it comes to marauding other birds’ nests and destroying 
their young. With all his vices, however, intemperance cannot 
be attributed to him, in spite of the name given him by the Adi- 
rondack lumbermen and guides. “Whisky John” is a purely 
innocent corruption of “ Wis-ka-tjon,” as the Indians call this 
bird that haunts their camps and familiarly enters their wigwams. 
The numerous popular names by which the Canada jays are 
known are admirably accounted for by Mr. Hardy in a bulletin 
issued by the Smithsonian Institution. 
“They will enter the tents, and often alight on the bow of a 
canoe, where the paddle at every stroke comes within eighteen 
inches of them. I know nothing which can be eaten that they 
will not take, and I had one steal all my candles, pulling them 
out endwise, one by one, from a piece of birch bark in which 
they were rolled, and another peck a large hole in a keg of Cas- 
tile soap. A duck which I had picked and laid down for a few 
minutes, had the entire breast eaten out by one or more of these 
birds. I have seen one alight in the middle of my canoe and 
peck away at the carcass of a beaver I had skinned. They often 
spoil deer saddles by pecking into them near the kidneys. They 
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