Range. - North America, east of the Plains and north to Hudson Bay; resident and very abundant in its United States range.

These beautiful and bold maurauders are too well known to need description, suffice it to say that they are the most beautiful of North American Jays; but beneath their handsome plumage beats a heart as cruel and cunning as that in any bird of prey. In the fall, winter and spring, their food consists largely of acorns, chestnuts, berries, seeds, grain, insects, lizards, etc., but during the summer months they destroy and devour a great many eggs and young of the smaller birds, their taste for which, being so great that they are known to watch a nest until the full complement of eggs is laid before making their theft. They nest in open woods or clumps of trees, indifferently, in pines or young trees, building most often below twenty feet from the ground; the nests are made of twigs and rootlets, lined with fine rootlets. During May they lay from four to six eggs of a greenish buff color spotted with olive brown. Size 1.10 x .80

YOUNG BLUE JAYS

Blue Jay.

Dr. J. B. Pardoe Young Blue Jays.

Blue Jay.

477a. Florida Blue Jay. Cyanocitta Cristata Fiorincola

Range. - Florida and the Gulf coast.

The nesting habits and eggs of this smaller sub-species are the same as those of the northern Blue Jay. Like our birds, they frequently nest near habitations.