STELLER’S JAY. 
49 
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 
fi om tiee 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 JVucifraga, Pyrrhocorax, 
Bomby cilia, and at the same time form other links with Lanius, 
and even with Turdus and Jlcridotheres. 
There is one remarkable analogy of the Jays which we cannot 
pass over in silence. It is, however singular, and hitherto unsus¬ 
pected, with the Titmouse, (. Parus ). 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 
VOL. II.-N 
l 
