64 
GARRULUS STELLERI. 
twigs and roots, whose capillary fibres serve as a lining 
inside ; the eggs are from four to six. The old ones 
keep the food for their young in the oesophagus, whence 
they can bring it up when wanted. The young are 
born naked, and remain for a long period in the nest, 
being still fed for some time by the parents after they 
are full fledged. 
Unlike the melancholy crows, which step gravely, 
lifting one foot after the other, the jays and magpies 
move about nimbly by hopping, and are constantly in 
motion while on the ground. Their flight is moreover 
neither protracted nor elevated, but merely from tree 
to tree, and from branch to branch, shooting straight 
forward at once when wishing to go any distance, now 
and then flapping their wings, and hovering as they 
descend, when about to alight. It is quite the reverse 
with the crows ; and all these characters are of the 
greatest importance in the establishment of natural 
groups. 
While the true Corvi , by their stout and almost hooked 
bill, and the carnivorous habits of some species, exhibit 
on the one hand the gradual passage from the vultures, 
and on the other by the slender-billed species, the 
transition to the crow blackbirds and troopials ; the 
affinities of the jays present nice gradations to the 
genera already dismembered from Corvus , such as 
Nucifraga, Pyrrhocorax , Bomby cilia, and at the same 
time form other links with Lanius, and even with 
Turdus and Acridotheres. 
There is one remarkable analogy of the jays which 
we cannot pass over in silence. It is, however, singular, 
and hitherto unsuspected, with the titmouse (Parws.) 
Form, habits, even the peculiar looseness of texture of 
the plumage, all are similar in these genera, hitherto 
estimated so widely different. This resemblance extends 
even to colour in some species : it might even be asked, 
what else, in fact, is the Canada jay than a large 
titmouse ; and what the crested titmouse, but a small 
jay ? The blue colour of the typical jays predominates, 
moreover, in other Pari, and the P. caudatus of Europe 
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