Leaving the true jays of the genus _Garrulus_, it is expedient next to consider those of a group named, in 1831, _Perisoreus_ by Prince C. L. Bonaparte (_Saggio_, &c., _Anim. Vertebrati_, p. 43) and _Dysornithia_ by Swainson (_F. B.-Americana_, ii. 495).[2]
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--American Blue Jay.]
This group contains two species--one the Lanius infaustus of Linnaeus and the Siberian jay of English writers, which ranges throughout the pine-forests of the north of Europe and Asia, and the second the _Corvus canadensis_ of the same author, or Canada jay, occupying a similar station in America. The so-called Siberian jay is one of the most entertaining birds in the world. Its versatile cries and actions, as seen and heard by those who penetrate the solitude of the northern forests it inhabits, can never be forgotten by one who has had experience of them, any more than the pleasing sight of its rust-coloured tail, which an occasional gleam of sunshine will light up into a brilliancy quite unexpected by those who have only surveyed the bird's otherwise gloomy appearance in the glass-case of a museum. It seems scarcely to know fear, obtruding itself on the notice of any traveller who invades its haunts, and, should he halt, making itself at once a denizen of his bivouac. In confinement it speedily becomes friendly, but suitable food for it is not easily found. Linnaeus seems to have been under a misapprehension when he applied to it the trivial epithet it bears; for by none of his countrymen is it deemed an unlucky bird, but rather the reverse. In fact, no one can listen to the cheery sound of its ordinary calls with any but a hopeful feeling. The Canada jay, or "whisky-jack" (the corruption probably of a Cree name), seems to be of a similar nature, but it presents a still more sombre coloration, its nestling plumage,[3] indeed, being thoroughly corvine in appearance and suggestive of its being a pristine form.
As though to make amends for the dull plumage of the species last mentioned, North America offers some of the most brilliantly coloured of the sub-family, and the common blue jay[4] of Canada and the eastern states of the Union, _Cyanurus cristatus_ (fig. 2), is one of the most conspicuous birds of the Transatlantic woods. The account of its habits by Alexander Wilson is known to every student of ornithology, and Wilson's followers have had little to do but supplement his history with unimportant details. In this bird and its many allied forms, coloration, though almost confined to various tints of blue, seems to reach its climax, but want of space forbids more particular notice of them, or of the members of the other genera _Cyanocitta_, _Cyanocorax_, _Xanthura_, _Psilorhinus_, and more, which inhabit various parts of the Western continent. It remains, however, to mention the genus Cissa, including many beautiful forms belonging to the Indian region, and among them the _C. speciosa_ and _C. sinensis_, so often represented in Oriental drawings, though doubts may be expressed whether these birds are not more nearly related to the pies than to the jays. (A. N.)