PERISOREUS CANADENSIS. 
167 
guarding the locality which they have chosen as homes. At times the Jays become very 
familiar, approaching the houses on the edges of settlements in order to pick the hones 
which are thrown about or will even venture to eat the meat hung close to the hunters 
camp. 
GENUS IV. PERISOREUS. THE GRAY JAYS. 
Gen. Cn. Bill, stout and conical, much shorter than the head which is semi-crested. Wings, longer than the tail which 
is well rounded. Size, medium. 
The principal colors are gray throughout. The feathers are cf that peculiar loose structure seen in the Titmouse, giving 
the birds a downy appearance. 
PERISOREUS CANADENSIS. 
Canada Jay. 
Perisoreus Canadensis Bon. List; 1838. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Sp. Ch. Form, robust. Size, medium. Feathers of semi-crest, very downy. Tongue, broad, thin and horny, bifid, 
and provided with coarse cilia which extend along the sides. 
Color. Adult. Above, ashy-plumbeous, with-the top of the head and neck, yellowish-white, crossed by a nauchal 
band of plumbeous. The secondaries and tail are slightly tipped with whitish. Beneath, grayish, lighter on the throat 
and dusky posteriorly. Under wing coverts, plumbeous. Bill and feet, black. 
Young. Not nearly as light about the head as in the adult, and they are duller below, while there is a slight indica¬ 
tion of a dusky line through the eye. 
Nestlings. Very dusky throughout with little or no white on the head. There is also a well-defined dusky line through 
the eye. The throat is also dusky. Sexes, similar in all stages. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
There is a noticeable similarity in plumage in specimens of the same age and sex but some are a little lighter below than 
those which I have described. Distributed throughout Northern North America, coming into Northern United States, 
especially in winter. 
DIMENSIONS. 
Average measurements of five specimens from New Hampshire. Length, 12'00; stretch, 17*45; wing, 5 - 75; tail 5'75; 
bill,‘80; tarsus, 1*65. Longest specimen, 12' 10; greatest extent of wing, 17'50; longest wing, 5'50; tail, 6*00; bill, '85; 
tarsus, 1.70. Shortest specimen, 11'25; smallest extent of wing, 17'00; shortest wing, 5'60; tail, 5*70; bill, '75; tarsus, l - 52. 
DESCRIPTION OF NESTS AND EGGS. 
Nests, built in trees, composed of sticks moss and grass, lined with fine roots. Dimensions, external diameter, 6'00, 
internal, 3'50. External depth, 4'00; internal, 2-00. 
Eggs, five to six in number, oval in form, pale grayin color, spotted and blotched with brown. Dimensions from 1'05 x 
•55 to l’25x ’90. 
HABITS. 
There is a great contrast in the country inhabited by the bird which we now have un¬ 
der consideration and the one last described. The home of the Florida Jay is in a land 
where frosts are seldom known and where snow never falls, a land of almost perpetual sun¬ 
shine where the flowers bloom throughout the year. The Canada Jays inhabit the gloomy 
evergreen forests of the North, where the thick branches of the giant hemlocks and spruces 
exclude the sunlight and the short summer passes so quickly that vegetation has but little 
time to advance, while for a greater portion of the year"the Ice King reigns supreme. 
It was in the primitive forests of Northern New Hampshire, that I first met with 
the Canada Jay. This was on the third of November, 1868, and there had been a heavy 
