Herr Schiitt U7i the Breeding of the Nutcracker. 367 



Outwardly the nest consists of slender dry fir-sticks, to which 

 cling beard-moss and lichens; it is interwoven with green 

 fir-twigs, gathered apparently from the tree on which it stood. 

 Very likely the same design exists here as in the case of many 

 birds of prey, which garnish their nests with fresh leafy twigs. 

 The outer materials are moss, tender tree-bark, and bast. The 

 inner lining consists of beard-lichens, bast, and dry grass-stalks, 

 forming a nearly hollow hemisphere, 4 inches 8 lines in diameter, 

 and 2 inches 10 lines deep. The weight of the eggs varies, 

 w^hen full, from 10'37 grammes to 11*15 grammes; the length, 

 from 14*75 lines to 15*75 lines ; and the breadth, from 11 lines 

 to 11*5 lines (Paris measure). The form of all three eggs is 

 different, varying from an elongated to a bulging oval. 



The ground-colour is a very pale bluish green, strongly con- 

 trasting with the bright buff-coloured [ledei^farbenen) blotches 

 equally distributed over the egg. The blotches are partly coarse, 

 sometimes fine, and many run into one another; but they are 

 smaller than in all the eggs of Corvus known to me, even in those 

 of the Jay, though they have numerous spots standing thick 

 and melting away, so that the ground-colour nearly disappears. 

 On one egg only there is a strongish accumulation of blotches 

 at the blunt end, but not in a zone-shaped form. 



The smallest egg of the Nutcracker equals the largest Jay's, 

 but bulges out more. The difference in the breadth amounts to 

 1 line. 



The present eggs agree with the description given by the 

 Baron Konig-Warthauseu in the ' Journal fiir Ornithologie ' for 

 1861 (page 39) almost entirely in size, as well as in ground- 

 colour. The blotches, on the contrary, are numerous, and their 

 colour leaves no trace of violet-grey nor greenish-brown percept- 

 ible in the magnifying-glass ; so also the blackish-brown spots 

 are wanting, — in which respects I should deem the eggs of Baron 

 Konig-Warthausen as scarcely authentic. 



I may remark, by the way, that the range of the Nutcracker 

 during the breeding-time seems to depend on the presence of 

 uncleared fir-thickets and beard-mosses, which last naturally 

 require a certain height, dampness of the air, and mountain 

 situation, according to climate. 



