steller’s jay. 
61 
very natural genera ; but the additions made to it by 
Gmelin and Latham rendered it an utter chaos, where 
every new species with a stout bill took its place, in 
defiance of the genuine characters. Under such cir- 
cumstances the task of the ornithologist, w ho professed 
to be guided by philosophical principles w r as, doubtless, 
not merely to subdivide, but to make an entire refor- 
mation. Illiger, w T ith bis usual judgment, perceived 
the evil, and attempted its remedy ; but his genus was 
still too extensive, and, besides, w^as not natural, as it 
included the wax-wdngs, a very distinct genus, that had 
alw r ays been forced into others. The only advantage it 
possessed over that of Latham was, that all the species 
it comprised exhibited its artificial characters. As 
restricted by Brisson, Yieillot, and lately adopted by 
Temminck, by wdiom it w as previously much limited, 
it is perfectly natural; though we cannot help remarking 
that some even of the eighteen species enumerated by the 
latter in his article on the generalities of the crows, in 
the Planches Coloriees, may again be separated, such as 
Corvns Colambianus , Wils., which ought, perhaps, to 
constitute a genus by itself. Yieillot, and other recent 
writers on ornithology, have long since adopted the 
genus Garrulus as distinct even from Pica, though we 
prefer retaining the latter merely as a subgen us of 
Garrulus , since it is absolutely impossible to draw the 
line of separation between them without resorting to 
minute and complicated distinctions. 
The jays and magpies, in fact, require to be distin- 
guished from the crows, as a genus, on account of their 
form, colour, habits, and even their osseous structure. 
Their upper mandible, somewLat inflected at tip, and 
the navicular shape of the lower, afford obvious charac- 
teristic marks. Their w ings, too, are rather short, and 
do not reach by a considerable space to the tip of the 
tail, which is long, and more or less rounded, sometimes 
greatly wedge-shaped. On the contrary, the crows 
have long wings, reaching almost or quite to the 
extremity of the tail, w hich is short, and even at tip. 
The identity in the shape of the wings and tail, and 
