20 THE CLARK NUTCRACKER. 



crossed mandibles to lever open the scales, hut instead, feet and claws, 

 that serve the purpose of hands, and a powerful l)ill like a small crowbar. 

 To use the crowl>ar to advantage the cone needs steadying, or it would 

 snap at the stem and fall; to accomplish this one foot clasps it, and the 

 powerful claws hold it iirmly, whilst the other foot encircling the branch, 

 supports the bird, either l)ack downward, head downward, on its side, or 

 upright like a woodpecker, the long clasping claws being equal to any 

 emergency; the cone thus fixed and a firm Imld maintained on the Ijranch, 

 the seeds are gouged out from under the scales." 



These Nutcrackers are among the earliest and most hardy nesters. 

 Thev are practically indeiiendent of climate, l)ut are found during the 

 nesting months — March, or even late in February, and early April — only 

 where there is a local abundance of pine (or fir) seeds. They are artfully 

 silent at this season, and the impression prevails that they have "gone to 

 the mountains" ; or, if in the mountains already, the presence of a dozen 

 feet of snow serves to allay the oologisfs suspicions. 



The nest is a very substantial affair of twigs and bark-strips, hea\-ily 

 lined, as befits a cold season, and placed at an}- height in a pine or fir tree, 

 without noticeable attempt at concealment. The Inrds take turns incubating 

 and — again because of the cold season — are very close sitters. Three eggs 

 are usual) v laid, of about the size and .shape of Magpies' eggs, but much 

 more lightly colored. Incubation, Bendire thinks, lasts si.xteen or seventeen 

 days, and the young are fed solely on hulled pine seeds, at the first, pre- 

 sumably, regurgitated. 



If the Corvine affinities of this bird were nowhere else betrayefl, they 

 might lie known from the hunger cries of the young. The importunate ailli. 

 anil, ai'ili of the expectant bantling, and the subsecjuent gnlli'i. giillii. 

 gulh'i (if median deglutition (and boundless satisfaction) will always serve 

 to l)ind the Crcnv, Magpie, and Nutcracker toigether in one compact group. 

 When the voungsters are "ready for college," the reserve of early spring 

 is set asi<le and tlie hillsides are made to resouml with much practice of 

 that uncanny yell before mentioned. Family groups are gradually obliterated 

 and. along in June, the l>irds of the foothills begin to' retire irregularly 

 to the higher ranges, either to rest up after the exhausting labors of 

 the season, or to revel in midsummer gaiety with scores and hundreds of 

 their fellows. 



