Cyanura cristata.
Habits. The common Blue Jay of North America is found throughout the continent, from the Atlantic coast to the Missouri Valley, and from Florida and Texas to the fur regions nearly or quite to the 56th parallel. It was found breeding near Lake Winnepeg by Donald Gunn. It was also observed in these regions by Sir John Richardson. It was met with by Captain Blakiston on the forks of the Saskatchewan, but not farther west.
The entire family to which this Jay belongs, and of which it is a very conspicuous member, is nearly cosmopolitan as to distribution, and is distinguished by the remarkable intelligence of all its members. Its habits are striking, peculiar, and full of interest, often evincing sagacity, forethought, and intelligence strongly akin to reason. These traits belong not exclusively to any one species or generic subdivision, but are common to the whole family.
When first met with in the wild and unexplored regions of our country, the Jay appears shy and suspicious of the intruder, man. Yet, curious to a remarkable degree, he follows the stranger, watches all his movements, hovers with great pertinacity about his steps, ever keeping at a respectful distance, even before he has been taught to beware of the deadly gun. Afterwards, as he becomes better acquainted with man, the Jay conforms his own conduct to the treatment he receives. Where he is hunted in wanton sport, because of brilliant plumage, or persecuted because of unjust prejudices and a bad reputation not deserved, he is shy and wary, shuns, as much as possible, human society, and, when the hunter intrudes into his retreat, seems to delight to follow and annoy him, and to give the alarm to all dwellers of the woods that their foe is approaching.
In parts of the country, as in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and other Western States, where the Jay is unmolested and exempt from persecution, we find him as familiar and confiding as any of the favored birds of the Eastern States. In the groves of Iowa Mr. Allen found our Blue Jay nearly as unsuspicious as a Black-capped Titmouse. In Illinois he speaks of them as very abundant and half domestic. And again, in Indiana, in one of the
principal streets of Richmond, the same gentleman found the nest of these birds in a lilac-bush, under the window of a dwelling. In the summer of 1843 I saw a nest of the Jay, filled with young, in a tree standing near the house of Mr. Audubon, in the city of New York. The habits of no two species can well be more unlike than are those which persecution on the one hand and kind treatment on the other have developed in this bird.
The Blue Jay, wherever found, is more or less resident. This is especially the case in the more southern portions of its area of reproduction. In Texas, Dr. Lincecum informs us, this Jay remains both summer and winter. It is there said to build its nest of mud, a material rarely if ever used in more northern localities; and when placed not far from dwelling-houses, it is lined with cotton thread, rags of calico, and the like. They are, he writes, very intelligent and sensible birds, subsisting on insects, acorns, etc. He has occasionally known them to destroy bats. In Texas they seem to seek the protection of man, and to nest near dwellings as a means of safety against Hawks. They nest but once a year, and lay but four eggs. In a female dissected by him, he detected one hundred and twelve ova, and from these data he infers that the natural life of a Jay is about thirty years.
Mr. Allen mentions finding the Blue Jay in Kansas equally at home, and as vivacious and even more gayly colored than at the North. While it seemed to have forgotten none of the droll notes and fantastic ways always to be expected from it, there was added to its manners that familiarity which characterizes it in the more newly settled portions of the country, occasionally surprising one with some new expression of feeling or sentiment, or some unexpected eccentricity in its varied notes, perhaps developed by the more southern surroundings.
The Blue Jay is arboreal in its habits. It prefers the shelter and security of thick covers to more open ground. It is omnivorous, eating either animal or vegetable food, though with an apparent preference for the former, feeding upon insects, their eggs and larvæ, and worms, wherever procurable. It also lays up large stores of acorns and beech mast for food in winter, when insects cannot be procured in sufficient abundance. Even at this season it hunts for and devours in large quantities the eggs of the destructive tent caterpillar.