BLUE JAY. 
261 
States, and are mentioned by Dr Belknap in his enume- 
ration of the birds of New Hampshire.* * * § 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 Un- 
jig*ah, 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 lat. 58° 28' W. Ion. 141° 46', according 
to his estimation, where he observed several species of A 
birds not known in Siberia ; and one, in particular, 
described by Catesby, under the name of the blue jay. J 
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 memo- 
rable expedition across the continent 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 cir- 
cumstances, there may be intermediate tracts, in this 
immense range, which they seldom visit. 
* History of New Hampshire , vol. iii. p. 163. 
f Voyages from Montreal , fyc. p. 216, 4to. London, 1801. 
f See Steller’s Journal , apud Pallas. 
§ This fact I had from Captain Lewis. 
