'■34 



NUTCRACKER. 



while in birds from Manchuria, Corea, Japan and the Kuril Islands, 

 the bill is moderate, though incHned to be thick. The Siberian 

 form, with slender bill, is known to wander westward in autumn, at 

 irregular intervals and sometimes in large numbers ; and there is 

 evidence that this is the chief visitor to Western Europe, including 

 Great Britain. Some form of Nutcracker occurs in the Pyrenees 

 and has been observed in Estremadura ; it has also been found in 

 Sicily and Sardinia ; but not yet in Greece, Turkey, or the Caucasus. 

 In Kashmir the representative is IV. imiltipunctata, and in the 

 Himalayas N. hemispila. 



The Nutcracker often begins to breed early in March, when the 

 forests are still difficult of access owing to the snow ; and although 

 eggs were obtained in the French Alps by the late Abbe Caire as 

 long ago as 1846, it was not until after 1862 that English ornitholo- 

 gists became acquainted with some specimens taken on the island 

 of Bornholm, followed by others from Germany, Switzerland, &c. 

 The rather bulky nest, composed of twigs, with grass, roots, and a 

 little moss and lichen for a lining, is placed from fifteen to thirty 

 feet from the ground in a spruce fir, close to the stem. Sometimes 

 the bird will sit upon only two eggs, but 3 are usual ; they are pale 

 bluish-green, spotted with ash-brown, like some light varieties of 

 those of the Magpie : measurements v^, by '95 in. Seebohm was 

 mistaken in supposing that the Nutcrackers on the Yenesei retired 

 in June to breed ; they disappeared because it was time to moult, 

 and nearly all his specimens are immature birds. The seeds of 

 fir-cones are a favourite food, especially those of the arolla pine 

 {Pitms cembra) ; also hazel-nuts, of which the bird can carry a 

 dozen in its dilatable pouch and oesophagus ; while scraps of meat 

 and refuse are freely eaten. Its flight is dipping, but less laboured 

 than that of the Jay. One of the notes is gurre, gurre, and another 

 resembles the noise made by springing a rattle ; but before nesting 

 begins the birds become silent and very wary. 



The adult male is umber-brown above and below, profusely 

 spotted with drop-shaped white markings on the back and breast, 

 and more sparingly on the throat ; quills glossy black ; tail-feathers 

 greenish-black, with broad white tips to all except the central pair ; 

 under tail-coverts white; bill and legs black. Length 12 "5 in.; 

 wing 7-3 in. The female generally shows a rather browner tint on 

 the quills. The fledgling is covered with filamentous hair-brown 

 feathers with white streaks down their centres ; but almost as soon as 

 the quills are developed, the back and breast are covered with brown 

 feathers spotted with white, as in the adult. 



