CANADA JAY. 
263 
rarely three young’ at a time, which are at first quite 
black, and continue so for some time ; that they fly in 
pairs ; lay up hoards of berries in hollow trees ; are 
seldom seen in January, unless near houses ; are a kind 
of mock-bird ; and, when caught, pine away, though 
their appetite never fails them ; notwithstanding all 
which ingenuity and good qualities, they are, as we are 
informed, detested by the natives.* 
The only individuals of this species I ever met with 
in the United States were on the shores of the 
Mohawk, a short way above the Little Falls. It was 
about the last of November, and the ground deeply 
covered with snow. There were three or four in 
company, or within a small distance of each other, 
flitting leisurely along the roadside, keeping up a kind 
of low chattering with one another, and seemed nowise 
apprehensive at my approach. I soon secured the 
whole. On dissection, I found their stomachs occupied 
by a few spiders, and the aurelise of some insects. I 
could perceive no difference between the plumage of 
the male and female. 
The Canada jay is eleven inches long, and fifteen in 
extent ; back, wings, and tail, a dull leaden gray, the 
latter long, cuneiform, and tipt with dirty white ; interior 
vanes of the wings, brown, and also partly tipt with white ; 
plumage of the head, loose and prominent ; the forehead 
and feathers covering the nostril, as well as the whole 
lower parts, a dirty brownish white, which also passes 
round the bottom of the neck like a collar ; part of the 
crown and hind head, black ; bill and legs, also black ; 
eye, dark hazel. The whole plumage on the back is 
long, loose, un webbed, and in great abundance, as if to 
protect it from the rigours of the regions it inhabits. 
A gentleman of observation, who resided for many 
years near the North Fiver, not far from Hudson, in 
the State of New York, informs me, that he has par- 
ticularly observed this bird to arrive there at the com- 
* Hearne’s Journey , p. 405. 
