BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
199 
parts, reported to be quite plentiful, and the Canada Jay—called also Whisky 
Jack and Moose-bird—which breeds from Maine northward, is found here only as a 
rare straggler in winter. Although of an omnivorous nature, these birds feed 
chiefly on an animal diet. 
“ Primaries ten ; the flrst short, usually about half as long as the second ; the four 
outer sinuated on the inner edge. Nostrils concealed by narrow stiffened bristles 
or bristly leathers directed forwards. Tarsi scutellate anteriorly, the sides undi¬ 
vided (except sometimes below) and separated from anterior plates by a narrow 
naked strip, sometimes filled up with small scales. Basal joint of middle toe united 
♦or about half its length to each lateral one.” 
Subfamily GARRULINA1 Jays. 
Genus CYANOCITTA Strickland. 
Cyanocitta cristata (Linn.). 
Blue Jay; Jay-bird. 
Description {Plate 25). 
Head crested; bill rather slender; length about 12 inches; extent about 17; bill 
and legs black ; eyes brown ; crest and upper back a light purplish-blue ; wings and 
tail bright blue ; lower parts whitish and grayish-white, crossed on lower throat by 
a black collar which unites with black feathers on sides of head and crest; narrow 
frontal line and lores black. 
Habitat .—Eastern North America to the plains, and from the Fur countries south 
to Florida and eastern Texas. 
The Blue Jay is found in Pennsylvania during- all seasons of the year, 
but in the autumn and summer months this species is much more plen¬ 
tiful than at other periods. This beautiful bird is an inhabitant chiefly 
of forests. During- the breeding- season the Jays associate in pairs, but 
in the late summer and autumn it is not unusual to find them in small 
flocks. I have seen on several occasions as many as twenty-five of these 
birds feeding- in beech, chestnut or cedar trees. Both sexes eng-ag-e in 
nest-building-, which, in this latitude, is beg-un about the 20th of April. 
A nest which I saw the birds building: was completed in five days. The 
nest, a strong- bulky structure, composed chiefly of twig-s and fine roots, 
is placed commonly in a tree in the woods; sometimes, thoug-li rarely 
in this locality, nests are built in low bushes. The eg-g-s, four to six in 
number, mostly five, are greenish or brownish-gray, spotted with brown. 
Leng-th about 1.15 inches, width .84 of an inch. In Florida the Blue 
Jay * nests some five or six weeks earlier than in this latitude, at least I 
suppose this to' be the case, as I have seen these birds collecting sticks, 
etc., as early as the first week in March. The Blue Jay and also the 
“ Scrub Jay ” (Aphelocoma Jloridana), are in bad repute among the 
Florida farmers, from the fact that they (particularly the “ Scrub Jay ”) 
suck the eggs of chickens. 
Audubon writing of the Blue Jay says: 
* The Florida Blue Jay. a local race technically styled Cyanocitta cristata flnrincola. is smaller and has 
less white on tips of secondary and tail feathers than C. cristata. 
