Page:Ornithological biography, or an account of the habits of the birds of the United States of America, vol 2.djvu/91

 in the season. I found the young following their parents on the 27th June 1833, at Labrador, where I shot both old and young, while the former was in the act of feeding the latter.

The young, which was fully fledged, had no white about the head; the whole plumage was of a very deep slate colour approaching to black, excepting the ends of the tail feathers, which were of a sullied white, the lower mandible almost white. The bill was (of course) shorter than that of the old bird, more dilated at the base, the bristles there proportionally shorter. The legs were of a deep purplish black. In short, it bore a perfect resemblance to the bird called the "Short-billed Jay, or Whiskey Jack, Garrulus brachyrinchus," of my excellent friend Mr, as described and figured by himself and Dr Richardson in their beautiful and valuable Fauna Boreali-Americana, (Vol. II. p. 296, PI. 551.) So unlike the parent birds did the young of this species appear, that before I saw them fed by the old ones, I urged my young companions to shoot every one of the brood, thinking they might be of a new species. The contents of the stomach of both young and old birds were insects, leaves of fir trees, and eggs of ants. The intestines measured one foot eleven inches. The flesh of both was of a dark bluish colour, and smelt strongly of their food.

I have represented a pair of these birds on an oak branch, with its rich autumnal tints, and have attached to it the nest of a hornet, having observed the bird in the State of Maine pursuing that insect.

CoRvus Canadensis, imw. Syst. Nat. p. 158 Lath. Synops. vol. i. p. 389.—Ch. Bonaparte, Sjnops. of Birds of the United States, p. 58.

Canada Jay, Corvus canadensis, Wils. Amer. Ornith. vol. iii. p. 33, PL 21. Fig. h—Nuttall, Manual, p. 232.

GARauLBs canadensis, Swains and Richards, Fauna Boreali-Americana, part ii. p. 295.

Adult Male. Plate CVII. Fig. 1.

Bill short, strongs straight, compressed, acute; upper mandible with the dorsal outline shghtly arched, the sides sloping, the edges sharp and overlapping, the tip slightly declinate; lower mandible with the back narrow, the sides sloping. Nostrils basal, open, covered by the reversed bristly-feathers. Head rather large, neck short, body rather slight. Feet of ordinary length; tarsus about the same length as the middle toe,