isothermal line of this region passes south of Cincinnati, shows that climate and temperature do not regulate the range of this species. As observed in the summer months among the forests of Oregon, the Canada Jay appeared as a rather shy bird, exhibiting none of the familiarity and impudence exhibited in winter when made bold by hunger.
Wilson mentions the St. Lawrence as the southern boundary of this bird, a few only wintering in Northern New York and Vermont. But this is inexact. They are found resident throughout the year in a large part of Maine and in all the highlands of New Hampshire and Vermont. They are resident at Calais, where they breed in March at about latitude 45°, and descend in the winter to the southwest corner of Vermont, whence it is quite probable a few cross into Massachusetts, at Williamstown and Adams, though none have been detected, that I am aware. Wilson himself states that he was informed by a gentleman residing near Hudson, N. Y., that these birds have been observed in that neighborhood in the winter.
Dr. Coues met with these birds in Labrador. The first he saw were in a dense spruce forest. These were very shy, alighting only on the tops of the tallest trees, and flying off with loud harsh screams on his approach. Subsequently, at Rigolet, he found them abundant and very familiar. One or more were always to be seen hopping unconcernedly in the garden-patches around the houses, not in the least disturbed by the near presence of man, and showing no signs of fear even when very closely approached. He describes their voice as a harsh, discordant scream.
Mr. Edward Harris, of Moorestown, N. J., informed Mr. Audubon, that once, when fishing in a canoe in one of the lakes in the interior of Maine, these Jays were so fearless as to light on one end of his boat while he sat in the other, and helped themselves to his bait without taking any notice of him.
A nest of the Canada Jay, found by Mr. Boardman near St. Stephen’s, New Brunswick, measures four and a half inches in diameter and three inches in height. The cavity is about three inches wide and two deep. The nest is woven above a rude platform of sticks and twigs crossed and interlaced, furnishing a roughly made hemispherical base and periphery. Upon this an inner and more artistic nest has been wrought, made of a soft felting of fine mosses closely impacted and lined with feathers. The nest contained three eggs.
The egg of the Canada Jay measures 1.20 inches in length, by .82 of an inch in breadth. They are of an oblong-oval shape, and are more tapering at the smaller end than are most of the eggs of this family. The ground-color is of a light gray, with a slightly yellowish tinge over the entire egg, finely marked, more abundantly about the larger end, with points and blotches of slate-color and brown, and faint cloudings of an obscure lilac.
Perisoreus canadensis, var. obscurus, Ridgway.
ALASKAN GRAY JAY.
Perisoreus canadensis, Cooper & Suckley, 216.—Dall & Bannister, Trans. Chicago Acad. I, 1869, 286 (Alaska).—Finsch, Abh. Nat. III, 1872, 40 (Alaska).—Cooper, Orn. Cal. I, 1870, 307.
Sp. Char. (8,454 Shoalwater Bay, W. T., March 10, 1854; Dr. J. G. Cooper.) Above plumbeous-umber, inclining to grayish-plumbeous on wings and tail; shafts of the dorsal feathers conspicuously white. Whole crown and nape, above the lores and auriculars, sooty-black; separated from the brown of the back by a whitish tint. Forehead (narrowly), nasal tufts, lores, whole lateral and under side of head, with jugulum, pure white, rest of lower parts a duller and more brownish white. Wing, 5.50; tail, 5.30; culmen, .93; tarsus, 1.20. Young (5,904, Shoalwater Bay). Entirely plumbeous-brown, inclining to brownish-white beneath. Dorsal feathers with white shafts, and those of the forehead, crown, and nape, as well as the wing-coverts, with obsolete whitish borders.