of the first signs of autumn, and they drop and settle in the lane and by the pool as if to warn the leaves that they must soon follow.
FAMILY CORVIDÆ: CROWS, JAYS, MAGPIES.
Sub-Family Garrulinæ: Jays
Blue Jay: Cyanocitta cristata.
Plate 40.
Length: 11-12 inches.
Male and Female: Lead-blue above, head finely crested, a black collar uniting with some black feathers on the back. Below grayish white. Wing coverts and tail a bright blue barred transversely with black.
Song: A whistling bell note in the breeding season, the usual cry a screaming "Jay, jay, jay!"
Season: Resident.
Breeds: Through range.
Nest: Bulky, in appearance like that of the Crow, but only one-quarter the size.
Eggs: 5-6, about an inch long and broad for the length, brownish gray, with brown spots.
Range: Eastern North America to the Plains, and from the Fur Countries south to Florida and eastern Texas. When you see Jays in small flocks circling the trees in early spring and gathering their crop of chestnuts in the fall and acorns in early winter, you admire their brilliant colouring, jaunty crest and bold flight, merely wishing perhaps that their ery was less harsh.
But how do these birds amuse themselves in the period between April and September, in their breeding and moult-ing season, when they are comparatively inconspicuous, for they go into the woods to breed and become almost silent, —it is a case of still waters running deeply? Day by day they sally out of their nesting-places to market for themselves and for their young, and nothing will do for them but fresh eggs and tender squabs from the nests of the Song-birds; to be followed later by berries, small fruit, and grain. There are birds that have all the domestic virtues coupled
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