470 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
MAGPIES AND JAYS: Subfamily Garrulinae 
ROCKY MOUNTAIN CANADA JAY: Peris6reus canadensis capitalis Ridgway 
Description. — Length: About 11.2-13 inches, wing 5.9-6.3, tail 5.8-G.3, bill .9-1, 
tarsus 1.3-1.4. Head uncrested; ’plumage soft, full and lax; bill short, tail graduated. 
Adults: Head white, with slaty gray patch on hack of neck; collar white; rest of upper - 
Fig. 82. —Rocky Mountain Canada Jay 
At a camp at the base of Pecos Baldy, at 11,600 feet elevation, the friendly “camp 
birds” joined the naturalists at their meals under the firs and spruces 
parts leaden gray, except blackish tail and wings; tail with white tips, and wings with 
whitish edgings; throat and breast whitish; rest of underparts brownish gray. Young: 
Almost uniformly slaty or brownish, top of head dull whitish tinged with grayish 
brown, tail as in adults; feathers of underparts more or less tipped with whitish. 
Comparisons. —While no hard and fast lines bound the breeding grounds of the 
four genera of jays found in the Rocky Mountains of New Mexico, the short-tailed 
grayish blue Pinyon Jay belongs to the pinyon pines of Upper Sonoran Zone, the 
longer tailed round-headed light blue Arizona and Woodhouse Jays belong in the nut 
pines, junipers, and oaks of the Upper Sonoran Zone; and the dark, Long-crested Jay 
in the yellow pines and firs and spruces of the Transition and Canadian Zones, while 
the big, fluffy, gray Rocky Mountain Jay, or Camp Bird, belongs among the hemlocks 
and spruces of the Hudsonian Zone. 
Range. —Resident in Boreal Zones of Rocky Mountain region from interior of 
southern British Columbia, southern Alberta, and western Montana south to north¬ 
ern Mew Mexico and central-eastern Arizona. 
