In form, proportion, and size, this Magpie is precisely similar to the common species. Its bill has the sides less convex; the bare space under the eye is of much greater extent, and the feathers of the tail are much narrower. The colours are similar, and distributed in the same manner; but the bill of the present species is yellow, instead of black, and the black of the back and fore neck is tinged with brown. The two species are wonderfully closely allied; but on comparing my specimen with several others in the Museum of the Zoological Society of London, I found that they all precisely agreed with it.
I have represented in the plate a twig of a species of Platanus discovered by the excellent naturalist after whom I have named the bird perched upon it.
STELLER’S JAY.
Corvus Stelleri, Gmel.
PLATE CCCLXII. Adult.
Of this Jay, discovered by Steller, whose name it bears, Dr Richardson states that it “is not uncommon in the summer time on the Pacific coast of America, from the mouth of the Columbia to the 56th parallel. It also frequents the Rocky Mountains, where Mr Drummond procured a specimen. In its manner it greatly resembles the Garrulus cristatus.” Mr Nuttall’s account of it is as follows:—
“We first observed this bird in our Western route in the Blue Mountains of the Columbia, east of Wallah Wallah. Here they were scarce and shy, but we met them in sufficient abundance in the majestic pine forests of the Columbia, where, in autumn, their loud and trumpeting clangour was heard at all hours of the day, calling out djay, djay, and sometimes chattering and uttering a variety of other notes scarcely recognisable as distinct from the calls of our common Blue Jay. They are, however, far more bold, irritable, and familiar. Watchful as dogs, a stranger no sooner shews himself in their vicinity then they neglect all other employment to come round, follow, peep at and scold him, sometimes with such pertinacity and irritability as to provoke the sportsman intent on other game to level his gun against them in mere retaliation. At other times, stimulated by mere curiosity, they will be observed to follow you in perfect silence, until something arouses their ready ire, when the djay, djay, pay, pay, is poured upon you without intermission, till you are beyond their view. So intent are they on vociferating, that it is not uncommon to hear them busily scolding even while engaged with a large acorn in the mouth. Of their geographical limits we are as yet uncertain. They were first found by Steller at Nootka; but they do not extend into upper California, and scarcely to the west as far as the most western of the true Rocky Mountain Chains. They feed on insects, acorns, and the seeds of the gigantic pines which form a belt along the Pacific and the rivers of the Oregon Territory. In the month of May, I found a nest of this species in a small sapling of Douglas’s Fir, on the borders of a dark and dense forest, and again some time after a second nest with young, in an elevated branch of the same pine, on the border of a rocky cliff. On approaching the nest, which contained four eggs, of a pale green colour, with small olive-brown specks, varied with others of rather a violet hue, both the male and female flew at me with the utmost anger and agitation, deafening me almost with their cries and entreaties. But though I took only two of their eggs, I found next day that they had forsaken the nest, being too fearful and jealous of the intrusion to remain any longer in the same place. The nest as usual was bulky, made of interlaced twigs, and roots, with a stout layer of mud, and lined with black root-fibres. I saw the nest about ten days previous to the time of taking two of the four eggs. On that occasion the female (probably) only followed me in silence.”
Corvus Stelleri, Gmel. Linn. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 370.—Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. i. p. 158.—Ch. Bonaparte, Synopsis of Birds of United States, p. 438.
Steller’s Jay, Garrulus Stelleri, Ch. Bonaparte, Amer. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 44.
Garrulus Stelleri, Steller’s Jay, Fauna Bor.-Amer. vol. ii. p. 294.
Steller’s Jay, Nuttall, Manual, vol. ii. p. 229.