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The name Canada jay, accepted by ornithologists, is seldom used by the backwoodsman, the hunter, the trapper, and the wanderer in the north woods, who know this familiar bird by a variety of other common names. The name most commonly applied to the bird is “whisky jack,” with no reference, however, to any fondness for hard liquor; the old Indian name, “wiss-ka-chon,” or “wis-ka-tjon,” has been corrupted to “whisky john,” and then to “whisky jack.” It is also often called “camp robber,” “meat bird,” “grease bird,” “meat hawk,” “moose bird,” “lumber jack,” “venison hawk,” and “Hudson Bay bird,” all of which are quite appropriate and expressive of the bird’s character and behavior.

Although cordially disliked by the trapper and the hunter, because it interferes with their interests, this much-maligned bird has its redeeming traits; it greets the camper, when he first pitches camp, with demonstrations of welcome, and shares his meals with him; it follows the trapper on his long trails through the dark and lonesome woods, where any companionship must be welcome; it may be a thief, and at times a nuisance, but its jovial company is worth more than the price of its board.

Throughout the breeding season at least the home of the Canada jay is in the coniferous forests, among the firs and spruces, or not far from them. Dr. Thomas S. Roberts (1936) says of its haunts in northern Minnesota:

During the late winter and the early spring, which is the nesting-season, it is confined closely to dense spruce, arbor vitae, and tamarack swamps and is rarely seen unless such places are explored. After about the first of July, family parties, consisting of the two parents and four or five sooty-headed young, may be encountered roving through the open uplands and forests, keeping near together in their search for food. With the approach of winter, when the young resemble the adults, it seeks the vicinity of lumber camps, hunters’ and squatters’ cabins, and settlements, where it becomes very tame and fearless.

The above is mainly true of its haunts elsewhere, though it is not always closely confined to coniferous swamps, even in the nesting season. In the more northern portions of its range it is often found in the opener upland forests, nesting sometimes in solitary trees or in clumps of willows. In Labrador and in Newfoundland I found it common wherever there was any kind of coniferous growth, even where it was scattered or stunted.

Dr. Samuel S. Dickey tells me that in northern Alberta, where this species is common, it is often found in the higher, drier stands of aspen, balsam poplar, canoe birch, mountain-ash, spruce and fir trees, and in pure stands of jack pine (Pinus banksiana).

Nesting.—The Canada jay nests so early in the season, while the snow is still deep in the northern woods, that few of us have been able to observe its nesting habits, in spite of the fact that it is an abundant bird over a wide range. Its nesting site is usually remote from civilization, the nest is usually well hidden in dense coniferous forests, and extensive traveling on snowshoes is very difficult at that season. Moreover, the birds, though exceedingly tame and sociable at other seasons, are quiet, retiring, and secretive during the nesting season.

One of the earliest and most interesting accounts of the home life of the Canada jay is that given by Oscar Bird Warren (1899), who, on February 22, 1898, found a pair of these birds building their nest near Mahoning, Minn. (see Barrows, 1912, p. 416). The birds were discovered while Warren was walking down a railroad track through a spruce swamp:

Looking up, what should I see but a pair of Canada Jays pulling beard moss and spider nests from some dead trees and making short trips to neighboring live spruce about 150 feet from the railroad track, where they were evidently building a nest.

Taking a short circuit I reached a position where I could watch their movements better without attracting attention. They brought small sticks, beard moss, spider nests and strips of bark from the trees and sphagnum moss from about the base of the trees where not covered with snow, and deposited all of this in a bunch of branches at the end of a limb,—a peculiar reversed umbrella-shaped formation commonly seen in the small spruce trees, probably caused by some diseased condition of growth. The female arranged the material, pressing it into the proper shape and weaving it about the small twigs to form a safe support. Though the birds obtained the material so near, where it was abundant, yet they carefully picked up any which accidentally fell from the nest, and there were no signs of sticks or any fragments of nesting material at any time during the construction of the nest. * * *

By the 3rd of March the nest was well formed and smoothly lined with fine grass and thin strips of bark. On the 12th it was completed, being beautifully and warmly lined with feathers picked up in the forest and representing several species of birds. Those of the Ruffed and Canada Grouse were in greatest evidence, a feather of the latter being stuck in the edge of the nest where it showed quite conspicuously. These birds had spent nearly a month building their nest, and as a result the finished abode was perfectly constructed. It was large and substantial and yet not bulky, being a model of neatness and symmetry. The bulk of the nest was composed of strips of bark, small sticks, an abundance of dry sphagnum moss, some beard moss and grass, the whole being fastened securely together by small bunches of spider nests and cocoons. The first lining was made of thin strips of bark and fine grass, and this received a heavy coating of feathers, making a nest so warm that a temperature far below the zero mark would have no effect on the eggs it was to receive, as long as the mother brooded over them. The small twigs growing from the cluster of branches in which the nest was built gave it a rough appearance from below, but they served the purpose of secure supports and as a screen for concealment. As there were dozens of similar masses of limbs in the trees all about, a good observer might pass underneath this tree a score of times, and never see the nest, though but a few feet above his head.

The nest described above is unusual in its location, out at the end of a branch; most nests have been found on horizontal branches against the trunk, or in an upright crotch; but otherwise the nest construction is fairly typical of the species. Bendire (1895) says of a nest taken by MacFarlane at Pelican Narrows:

It was placed in a small spruce tree, near the trunk, about 9 feet from the ground. It is composed of small twigs, plant fibers, willow bark, and quite a mass of the down and catkins of the cottonwood or aspen, this material constituting fully one-half of the nest. The inner cup is lined with finer material of the same kind and Jays’ feathers, which are easily recognized by their fluffy appearance. * * * A nest taken near Ashland, Aroostook County, Maine, is composed externally of bits of rotten wood, mixed with tree moss, plant fibers, and catkins, and is lined with similar but finer materials.

Oliver L. Austin, Jr. (1932), records several Labrador nests; one was lined with “down, feathers, hair, fur and strips of the inner bark of willow felted together.” Of another, he says: “Nest of juniper twigs, wood moss, rotten wood, grass, and lined with partridge feathers [doubtless spruce grouse]; 4 feet from the ground in a white spruce, no other tree within ten yards.”

The above descriptions would apply very well to half a dozen or so nests that I have examined in museums and in my own collection. There is a nest in the Thayer collection in Cambridge, taken near Innisfail, Alberta, on March 1, 1903, when the thermometer was 32° below zero; it was 6 feet from the ground in a willow and was made largely of Usnea barbata, reinforced at the base and on the sides with twigs; it was profusely lined with feathers, mostly those of the sharp-tailed grouse, with a few of the pinnated and ruffed grouse. Macoun (1909) mentions three other Alberta nests, all of which were in willows; perhaps it is customary for the jays of this region, where there is comparatively little coniferous forest, to nest in willows. But I have also four records of Alberta nests in spruces. Elsewhere, nearly all the nests reported have been in spruces, with an occasional nest in a larch, firm, or hemlock.

Nests have been reported at various heights above the ground, from 4 feet to 30 feet, but the majority of the nests are placed 6 to 8 feet above ground, and very few have been found above 12 feet up. All the nests that I have seen have been well made, the materials being compactly felted; they are neatly finished around the rim and more or less decorated on the exterior with plant down and with cocoons and nests of spiders, wasps, and other insects; the walls are thick, and the inner cavity is warmly lined with feathers, fur, and plant down, furnishing a warm and cozy cradle for the young, to protect them from the low temperatures of late winter in northern latitudes. I have seen one nest, taken in Nova Scotia late in April, that was profusely lined with pine needles; perhaps the warmer lining was not needed at that season. The outer diameter of the nest varies from 6 to 10 inches, but most nests measure 7 or 8 inches; the outer height varies from 3 to 5 inches; the inner cavity measures 3 to 3½ inches in diameter and is 2 to 2½ inches deep.

There are four sets of eggs of this jay in my collection, now in the United States National Museum, two from Labrador and two from Newfoundland. The latter two were collected by J. R. Whitaker, about one of which he wrote to me as follows:

The nest was firmly built on some small twigs of a spruce and placed close to the trunk of the tree at about 18 feet from the snow level. There was no noticeable litter on the snow under the nest The nest was partly constructed on February 26, 1920, it held one egg on April 10, and was collected, with its complement of three eggs, on April 15. The nest is a very compact structure composed largely of larch twigs, for which the bird would have to go some distance, as the clump of trees in which the nest was placed is composed of nothing but fir and spruce. Mixed with the larch twigs is a good deal of Spanish moss and a large number of spider nests; there are also quite a few feathers in the structure; the lining is composed of moss, rabbit fur, caribou hair, etc., and next to the eggs quite a few jay feathers.

Robie W. Tufts has sent me the following notes on a nest of this jay that he discovered on April 4, 1919, in Annapolis County, Nova Scotia:

The bird was seen to fly to the nest and settle down as if incubating. At my close approach it left the nest, hopping about the twigs at close range and showing no sign of fear or excitement. Its mate was with it. On examination, the nest was found to be empty. Immediately upon my leaving, the bird was observed to fly back and nestle down again. The nest was not visited again until April 20, when the bird was sitting (on two half-incubated eggs) and the mate perched nearby. The sitting bird was loath to leave the nest, and not until the slender spruce was shaken did it hop off, sailing on outspread wings to a dead stub a few inches from the ground. During the two hours spent about the nest, one of the pair never left us, while the other had an uncanny way of vanishing and reappearing unannounced at intervals of about 20 minutes. The behavior of the birds was characterized by a furtive silence. The nest was placed about 12 feet up in a slender spruce in woods of open growth in a wilderness district some miles from human habitation. Little, if any, attempt was made at concealment.

Eggs.—The Canada jay lays ordinarily three or four eggs, but five have been reported, as well as full sets of two. They are normally ovate in shape, rarely short-ovate, and they are usually somewhat glossy, occasionally quite so. The ground color is grayish or greenish white, sometimes very pale gray or pearl gray, and rarely nearly pure white. They are usually quite evenly covered with small spots or fine dots of “deep olive-buff,” “dark olive-buff,” “olive-buff,” or “buffy olive”; Bendire (1895) calls the colors “different shades of brown, slate gray, and lavender.” The largest spots that I have seen on any of the eggs that I have examined are not over one-sixteenth of an inch in diameter, and these were grouped chiefly about the small end of the egg. Some eggs are very finely peppered. The measurements of 40 eggs average 29.4 by 21.3 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 33.0 by 20.3, 29.0 by 22.8, 26.4 by 20.4, and 28.2 by 20.1 millimeters.

Young.—Mr. Warren (1899) found the period of incubation to be between 16 and 18 days; it was performed by the female alone. Both parents assisted in the care and feeding of the young, which remained in the nest for about 15 days. He writes:

The food given to the young was always in a soft, partially digested state, and was placed deep in the mouths of the young by the old birds. I often watched them feeding the young when my eyes were not three feet from the birds, thus giving a chance for the closest possible observation. I have held my hand on the side of the nest while the mother unconcernedly fed her babies, but I was never able to take as great liberties with the male.

During the first few days after the nestlings were born, the male brought most of the food, the female remaining at the nest and, when the male returned, assisting in giving the food to the young by putting her bill into their mouths and forcing down any troublesome morsels. As the birds grew older the female took a more active part in carrying the food. I have timed them during the feeding hours and found that they came and went about every fifteen minutes with great regularity until the young were satisfied. When the male had discharged his burden he left immediately without waiting for the return of the female, but the mother always stayed until the male had returned or was in sight. The male was never seen on the nest during the period of incubation, nor afterwards, and as his color is much darker than the female’s there was never any trouble in distinguishing between them, even at a distance.

The female cleaned the nest often and very carefully, keeping it perfectly free from any filth. It seems this was done both for cleanliness and for the purpose of keeping the nest dry and warm. * * * The male always picked up any droppings which were cast over the nest and had clung to the branches, carrying all away almost every time he left the nest. By this constant care no trace of the presence of the nest was allowed at any time. It should also be added here that the young never made any noise excepting a weak chirp while with open mouths they waited their turn to be fed.

Ben East sent me an article he wrote for the Grand Rapids Press telling of his experience with brood of young Canada jays, near Isle Royale, Mich., on April 30, 1935. The nest was about 10 feet from the ground in a small balsam. He climbed a nearby birch to examine the nest, and the disturbance caused one of the young birds to flutter out and down to the ground. “I gave up my climbing attempt,” he says, “and slid back to the ground. Instantly I was the center of a spirited attack by two distraught, angry gray jays. They did not actually strike me, but they flew back and forth over me, darting at me from behind with angry excited cries, fluttering less than a foot above my head and doing all they could to drive me away.”

The youngster fluttered and ran along the ground, but it was captured and finally became quite tame and contented, perching on the fingers and heads of Mr. East and his two companions. They placed the young jay on a low branch of the balsam and took several photographs (pl. 3) of it while it was being fed by its parents. It was finally returned to the nest, where it seemed glad to nestle down among its nest mates.

In Newfoundland, in June, and in Labrador from Hopedale to Okak, in July, we found jays of this species common wherever there was coniferous timber. They were traveling about in family parties, and, although the young were fully grown and fully feathered in their dark juvenal plumage, they were still being guarded and probably partially fed by their parents. Both old and young birds were stupidly tame, often coming too close to shoot, but after one of the family had been shot the others immediately vanished. Young birds collected around the first of August were beginning to molt into their first winter plumage.

Mr. Tufts tells me that Ronald W. Smith records having seen a flock numbering from 25 to 30 birds in Kings County, Nova Scotia, on June 19, 1932, and another flock of about 25 birds on July 20, 1937. “This latter flock was seen several times during the same afternoon and evening.”

Plumages.—I have seen no very young Canada jays; all that I have seen in life, or in collections, have been fully grown and in full juvenal plumage. This has been very well described by Dr. Dwight (1900) as follows:

Everywhere brownish slate-gray, darker on the crown, paler on the abdomen and crissum. The feathers are lighter basally and faintly tipped with brown producing an obscurely mottled effect. Lores, region of eye and forehead dull black. Malar region whitish with a dull white spot anteriorly. Wings dull clove-brown with plumbeous edgings on secondaries and inner primaries, all the remiges tipped with grayish white, the greater coverts with smoke-gray. Tail slate-gray tipped with brownish white.

Young birds in this plumage are so unlike adults, that Swainson and Richardson (1831) considered them to be another species. As the Canada jay breeds very early in the season, it also begins to molt early in the summer. Young birds begin their postjuvenal molt in July, and some have nearly finished molting their contour plumage before the end of that month, though this molt often continues up to the middle or end of August, or even later. I have collected young birds in Labrador in full juvenal plumage as late as August 9. This molt includes all the body plumage, but not the wings and tail, which are retained until the next postnuptial molt. At this molt old and young become practically indistinguishable in first winter plumage, though the forehead in the young bird is usually somewhat tinged with brownish and the back is darker and more brownish than in the adult. Adults have a complete postnuptial molt beginning early in July, which is generally completed in August.

Food.—The Canada jay is almost omnivorous; it has been said that the “camp robber” will eat anything from soap to plug tobacco, for it will, at least, steal and carry off such unsavory morsels; some Indians have said: “Him eat moccasins, fur cap, matches, anytink” (Bendire, 1895). About camps the “whisky jack” is an errant thief; it will eat any kind of meat, fish, or food left unprotected, will carry off what it cannot eat, and will damage or utterly ruin what is left. It will even enter the tent or cabin in search of food, prying into every open utensil, box, or can. It comes to the camper’s table at mealtime and will grab what food it can with the utmost boldness, even seizing morsels from the plates or the frying pan. It shares the hunter’s or the fisherman’s lunch at noontime, confidently alighting on his knee or hand. It steals the bait from the trapper’s traps, sometimes before his back is turned; and it often damages the trapped animal.

William Brewster (1937) wrote in his journal:

After the leaves fell, they were met with chiefly about openings, pastures, etc., hunting apparently for grasshoppers, often going out into the fields several hundred yards. * * * For about two weeks we fed them generously with all sorts of refuse from our table, placing this in one spot. After they had become accustomed to our presence, they spent the greater part of each day in carrying food back into the woods, coming sometimes together, but usually alternately every two or three minutes, filling their throats and bills to the utmost capacity, then by short flights, passing out of sight. They seemed to prefer baked beans to any other food which we had to offer them, and next to beans, oatmeal. They would take bread or cracker when nothing else offered, carrying pieces of large size in their bills, after having stuffed their throats with smaller fragments. They did not seem to care for meat when the things just mentioned could be had. Of baked beans they regularly took four at one load, three in the throat and one held in the bill. * * *

We spent the greater part of one day in following them in order to ascertain what they did with the great quantity of food which they carried off. * * * They took it various distances and to various places, rarely or never, so far as we could ascertain, depositing two loads in the same place. They would place a mouthful of oatmeal perhaps on the horizontal branch of a large hemlock, three or four crumbs of bread on the crotch of a dead stub, a large piece of bread on the imbricated twigs of a living fir. On one occasion we saw one deposit four beans carefully on the top of an old squirrel’s nest.

On another occasion they found two of their storehouses: “One in the top of a pine stub where a piece of wood was started off at angle contained about a pint of bisquit and brownbread. The other in a larch stub in three peck holes of either Colaptes or Hylotomus, the three holes all crammed full of bread packed tightly, in all nearly a quart.” As soon as these latter birds learned that their storehouse had been discovered, they immediately removed every vestige of the food.

During spring, summer, and fall, this jay is largely insectivorous, feeding on grasshoppers, wasps, bees, and various other insects and their larvae. Mr. Warren (1899) saw them gathering “grubs from floating logs” and says he has “often seen them chasing a Woodpecker away from the trees just when he had uncovered the worm he had worked so hard to dig out.”

W. H. Moore (1904) dissected a Canada jay “and was much surprised to find that nearly one thousand eggs of the Lorset tent-caterpillar had been taken for breakfast. The chrysalids of this caterpillar are also fed upon, and in the autumn while the birds are migrating south they feed largely upon locusts, beetles, etc. The young taken in June feed upon beetles and caterpillars.”

Nuttall (1832) says that it “lays up stores of berries in hollow trees for winter; and at times, with the Rein-deer, is driven to the necessity of feeding on Lichens.” Audubon (1842) reports that “the contents of the stomach of both young and old birds were insects, leaves of fir trees, and eggs of ants.”

Behavior.—The most striking and characteristic traits of the Canada jay are its tameness or boldness, one could almost call it stupidity, and its thieving propensities. Its tameness often makes it an interesting and a welcome companion in the lonesome woods, but its boldness, coupled with its thieving habits, has caused many travelers to regard it as a nuisance. Manly Hardy expressed it very well when he wrote to Major Bendire (1895):

They are the boldest of all our birds, except the Chickadee (Parus atricapillus), and in cool impudence far surpass all others. They will enter tents, and often alight on the bow of a canoe where the paddle at every stroke comes within 18 inches of them. I know of nothing which can be eaten that they will not take, and I had one steal all my candles, pulling them out endwise one by one from a piece of birch bark they were rolled in, and another pecked a large hole in a cake of castile soap. A duck which I had picked and laid down for a few minutes had the entire breast eaten out by one or more of these birds. I have seen one alight in the middle of my canoe and peck away at the carcass of a beaver I had skinned. They often spoil deer saddles by pecking into them near the kidneys. They do great damage to the trappers by stealing the bait from traps set for martens and minks and by eating trapped game; they will spoil a marten in a short time. They will sit quietly and see you build a log trap and bait it, and then, almost before your back is turned, you hear their hateful “ca-ca-ca” as they glide down and peer into it.

Curiosity is another characteristic trait of this jay. One can hardly ever enter the woods where these birds are living without seeing one or more of them; the slightest noise arouses their curiosity, and they fly up to scrutinize the stranger at short range, often within a few feet, and they will then follow him to see what he will do. The sound of an ax always attracts them, for it suggests making camp, which means food for them; and the smoke of a campfire is sure to bring them.

William Palmer (1890) relates the following case of unusual curiosity, or stupidity: “After spending the day on one of the Mingan Islands, which is very densely wooded, we started to drag our dory down to the water, necessarily making considerable noise. While doing so, and glancing towards the woods, I observed a jay perched upon the top of the nearest tree, evidently interested in our proceedings. I immediately shot him, and the report had hardly died away when another jay took his place. He, too, followed the first, when instantly another flew to the very same tree, only, however, to meet the same fate.” This is in marked contrast to the behavior of these birds when they have young with them; for whenever I shot one of a family party the others immediately vanished.

The flight of the Canada jay is easy and graceful but not vigorous or prolonged. It seldom indulges in long flights in the open. It floats lightly from tree to tree on its broad wings, making very little noise and seldom flapping its wings except when rising from the ground into a tree. Its ordinary method of traveling through the woods is to sail down from the top of one tree to the lower part of another, and then to hop upward from one branch to another, often in a spiral fashion, until it attains sufficient height to make another scaling flight. Its broad wings and fluffy plumage seem to make it very buoyant and enable it to float upward at the end of a sailing flight.

Dr. Dickey says (MS.) that Canada jays seem to like to associate with such small birds as myrtle warblers, winter wrens, chickadees, purple finches, and some of the northern flycatchers. Lucien M. Turner (MS.) tells of feeding one on meat until it became so tame as to perch on one hand and eat out of the other.

Voice.—William Brewster (1937) writes:

It has a variety of notes, most of them shrill and penetrating, the commonest a loud, hawk-like whistle, very like that of the Red-shouldered Hawk, but clearly not, as in the case of one of the Blue Jay’s calls, an imitation of it. Another common cry is a succession of short, rather mellow whistles, eight or ten in number all given in the same key. It frequently utters a loud “Cla, cla cla, cla, cla, cla, cla,” not unlike the cry of the Sparrow Hawk. It also scolds very much like a Baltimore Oriole. Twice I heard one scream so nearly like a Blue Jay that I should probably have been deceived had not the bird been very near and in full sight of me. In addition to these notes, it also has a low, tender, cooing noise which I have never heard except when two birds are near together, evidently talking to one another.

The Canada jay is credited with being something of a mimic, imitating more or less successfully the notes of the red-tailed, red-shouldered, and broad-winged hawks, as well as the songs of the small birds that it hears. Several writers have referred to its rather pleasing, twittering song, of which Mr. Warren (1899) writes: “On pleasant days the male trilled from a spruce top a song of sweetly modulated notes wholly new to my ears. He always sang in sotto voce, and it required an acquaintance with the songster to realize that he, though so near, was the origin of those notes which seemed to come from somewhere up in the towering pines which surrounded this strip of swamp, so lost was the melody in the whispering, murmuring voices of the pines.”

Ernest Thompson Seton (1890) has heard it give a chuck, chuck note, like that of a robin; Knight (1908) says that “their cry is a querulous ‘quee-ah’ ‘kuoo’ or ‘wah,’ uttered as they perch on top of some tree or take flight.” Langille (1884) adds to the list a note “sounding like choo-choo-choo-choo.”

Field marks.—The Canada jay is not likely to be mistaken for anything else in the region where it lives. It is a little larger than a robin and much plumper. Its general color is gray, with a blackish hood and a white forehead. It looks much larger than it really is on account of its fluffy plumage; in cold weather, especially, its soft plumage is so much expanded as to exaggerate its size. Its small bill, fluffy plumage, and confiding manners suggest an overgrown chickadee. The only gray bird of similar size in the north woods is the northern shrike, whose black wings and tail and larger bill are distinctive.

Fall.—A. Dawes DuBois writes to me: “During my 11 years of residence in the Lake Minnetonka region, in Hennepin County, Minn., I have seen Canada jays in the fall of one year only. They visited us in October and November 1929. On November 24 two of them were attracted to a chunk of suet fastened to the trunk of a tree close to our house. Their method was to cling either on top of the suet or to the bark of the tree, at one side of it. They took turns at this repast. One waited in the tree while the other was eating; then it flew down to take its share. In this manner they alternated, with some regularity; but one of them seemed dominant over the other.”

The Canada jay is supposed to be permanently resident in the north woods, where it breeds; and it probably does usually remain there during ordinary winters, provided there is no failure in its food supply. It undoubtedly wanders about more or less in search of food and at times has made quite extensive migrations to points south of its breeding range. The two following quotations illustrate this point. On September 5, 1884, Napoleon A. Comeau wrote from Godbout, Quebec, to Dr. C. Hart Merriam (1885) as follows: “We have lately had a most extraordinary migration of the Canada jay (Perisoreus). One afternoon I counted over a hundred in the open space near the old Hudson’s Bay Company’s house here; and almost every day since the first of this month it has been the same. I believe this unprecedented flight must be owing to scarcity of berries in the interior, and, since they happen to be plentiful along the coast this fall, the birds follow the shore to feed on them.”

M. Abbott Frazar (1887) writes from Quebec Labrador:

On my return to Esquimaux Point, the first week in September, * * * I was soon made aware of an immense migration of these jays which was taking place. Right directly back from the house the low hills terminated in a straight line at right angles with the coast, and in a path which ran along the foot of these hills I took my stand and waited for the jays as they came straggling down the hillside. The flocks varied in size from a dozen to fifty or so individuals and kept following each other so closely that an interval of ten minutes was a rarity and they never varied their line of migration but kept right on, taking short listless nights from tree to tree, I devoted but two forenoons to them and although I had nothing but squib charges of dust to kill them with, being out of medium sized shot, I killed ninety and could easily have trebled that number had I wished. How long the force of the migration kept up I cannot say but I know there were still a few passing by when I left the country ten days later.

Winter.—There are numerous winter records for various points in New England and New York, but Pennsylvania seems to be about the southern limit of its wanderings in the eastern part of the country. Todd’s “Birds of Western Pennsylvania” gives but one record for that region, in February 1923. But N. R. Casillo writes to me that the Canada jay comes down into that part of the State “more or less regularly,” as borne out by his observation of two individuals in Lawrence County over a period of 4 years. The locality where these birds were seen, New Castle, Pa., is about 70 miles southwest of Forest County, where the previous record was made. It is flat or rolling country and sparsely wooded, with conifers conspicuously absent. The first bird was seen from a distance of 12 feet, on November 26, 1936, while it was feeding on the berries of a Virginia creeper that grew over a porch trellis near Mr. Casillo’s kitchen window. He observed the second bird, apparently a younger bird, in the same vine on December 8. One or both of these birds were seen there on January 12 and February 4, 1937, three times in November and on December 14, 1939, and on January 1 and 13, 1940.