68 
GARRULUS FLORID ANUS. 
tioned, and if they proceeded from a laudable desire of 
excluding nominal species, evinced throughout, we 
should refrain from censure ; hut when, on the contrary, 
we find in the same work such repeated instances of an 
inconsiderate multiplication of species, they cannot he 
too severely condemned. 
Vieillot, in the case of this bird, has fallen into the 
contrary, and much more common, error, of making 
two species out of it ; one from personal observation, 
and the other by compilation. This mistake has already 
been corrected by Mr Ord, in a valuable paper which he 
drew up on his return from Florida, where he enjoyed 
the advantage of studying this species in its native 
haunts. 
“ When we first entered East Florida,” says Mr Ord, 
<e which was in the beginning of February, we saw none 
of these birds ; and the first that we noticed were in 
the vicinity of St Augustine, on the 13th of the above 
mentioned month. We afterwards observed them daily 
in the thickets near the mouth of the St Juan. Hence 
we conjectured that the species is partially migratory. 
Their voice is not so agreeable as that of the Garrulus 
cristatus , or crested blue jay of the United States; they 
are quarrelsome, active, and noisy; and construct their 
nests in thickets. Their eggs I have not seen.” “ The 
blue jay, which is so conspicuous an ornament to the 
groves and forests of the United States, is also com- 
mon in Florida. This beautiful and sprightly bird we 
observed daily, in company with the mocking-bird and 
the cardinal grosbeak, around the rude habitations of 
the disheartened inhabitants, as if willing to console 
them amid those privations which the frequent Indian 
wars, and the various revolutions which their province 
has experienced, have compelled them to bear.” The 
Florida jay, however, is a resident in that country, or 
only removes from section to section. It is not confined 
to Florida, where it was first noticed by Eartram, being 
found also in Louisiana, and in the west extends north- 
ward to Kentucky; but along the Atlantic, not so far. 
In East Florida it is more abundant, being found at all 
