SIBERIAN JAY.

Garrulus infaustus, Temm.

 

 

 

Le Geai imitateur.

 

Tue northern portions of Europe, namely Norway, Sweden, and Siberia, constitute the habitat of this inter-
esting bird, which offers to the naturalist many points for further investigation. With two closely allied species

 

from the north of the American continent, it would seem to forma genus, approximating we admit to that of

 

the true Jays, but still removed from it by certain modifications of character. The general form is less robust,
the bill more feeble and shorter, and the feathers more plume-like and disorganized. We are not, however,
prepared to institute a new genus, but provisionally assign the present bird a place in that of Garrulus. The
Siberian Jay, like its American relative (Garrulus Canadensis), has a full share of that prying curiosity and
imitative qualities which distinguish the race. Its manners are bold and inquisitive, and its actions quick and
lively. Confined entirely to the northern latitudes, it is totally unknown in the temperate and southern di-

 

 

 

stricts of Europe ; and its soft and downy plumage is no doubt well calculated to protect it from the effects
of the extreme cold of a Siberian winter ; which, as the bird is not migratory, 1t must in all respects be fitted
to endure. In these dreary regions, where the human population is thin and scattered, the Siberian Jay
relieves the woods and thickets of part of their loneliness, and attracts the notice of the traveller by its famili-

 

arity and restlessness.

Its food consists of wild berries and fruits, to which insects, their larvee and worms are also added.

OF its nidification little is known ; but in this respect we may naturally conclude that it resembles its allied
congener the Garrulus Canadensis, which is an early breeder, even before the snow is off the ground ; con-
structing a nest of sticks and grass, in a fir-tree in the recesses of the woods, and laying five blue eggs.

The head is covered with a crest of short blackish feathers ; those which cover the nostrils, and those also
around the base of the beak are yellowish white ; the upper surface is olive brown ; the shoulders and outer
tail-feathers fine rufous; the quills and two middle tail-feathers brown ; the throat and under surface of a
lighter tint than the back, changing insensibly to a pale rufous, which becomes more decided on the thighs
and under tail-coverts ; beak and tarsi black. Length eleven inches.

We are not aware that it undergoes any periodical changes m its plumage, which is alike in both sexes.

The Plate represents an adult bird of the natural size.