The birds of this group are most numerous in America. In the higher northern latitudes and in the eastern parts of the United States, a few species only are found; several others, of which some account will be found in the present work, and some of which are very handsome and remarkable species have as yet to be regarded as exclusively western, having only been observed in the countries on the Pacific seaboard. We beg the liberty of saying, however, in passing, that it is as yet quite impossible to define, in any reliable manner, the limits of the range of any of the birds usually regarded as exclusively inhabiting the Western States and territories of the United States, so vast a central region having been but very imperfectly explored, and which yet presents to the enterprising scientific traveller one of the most interesting regions for research on the face of the globe. It comprises the entire range of country from the Mississippi river to beyond the Rocky Mountains, from the northern to the southern limits of the United States. In Mexico and thence southward to Brazil and Patagonia, and, in fact, throughout South America, many species of Jays are to be met with in abundance, and of such beautiful plumage and variety of tints as far surpass those of any other country. The prevailing hues of the plumage of the greater number of the American species are the different shades of blue, from the most delicate ultramarine or azure to deep indigo, generally variegated, in a very agreeable manner, with white, black or yellow. Amongst the most handsome of these birds we may mention the great crested Jay of South America and the West Indies, _Cyanocorax pileatus_, a large and very showy species, the Mexican painted Jay, _Cyanocitta_ _ornata_, which has the entire plumage of a deep blue color beautifully relieved by a large patch of very pale bluish white on the back part of the head and neck. Others, such as Beechey’s Jay of California and Mexico, _Cyanocitta Beechii_, of which we shall give a plate and description, have the plumage of fine silky blue above, and deep black on the under part of the body. There are a few species in which the prevailing color of the plumage is violet, as the _Cyanocorax violaceus_, a native of the northern parts of South America, and probably of Central America and Mexico. There are also a few species of which the bird figured in our present plate is one, in which the plumage is green, usually variegated with blue and yellow.