Letters, Extracts, Notices, i^c. 353 



ability aud success. Of tl;e latter his collection was well 

 known, after the addiiiou to it of those of Canon Tristram 

 and of his brother, to be one of the richest in certain groups 

 in Europe. By his will Mr. Crowley left to the Trustees of 

 the British ^luseura power to select all such spocimeus from 

 his cabinets of birds'-eg:g.> as were required to make their 

 series more complete, and we are informed that the National 

 Collection will greatly benefit by this generous bequest. 



It is an interesting fact that Mr. Crowley^s mother was 

 the daughter of Dr. Curtis, of Alton, who attended Gilbert 

 White during his last illness. 



XXVIl. — Letters, Extracts, Notices, b^c. 



We have received the following letters, addressed to ' The 

 Editors ' :— . 



Sjrs, — A large number of Nutcrackers {Nac'tfruga caryo- 

 catactes) have visited this country during the last four 

 months of this year. They probably arrived at the end of 

 September, as the first specimens were obtained quite early 

 in October. 



They spread all over the country, so that examples were 

 observed in all the eleven provinces of Holland. The birds, 

 as would be expected, all belong to the slender-billed form ; 

 at least all those that I could examine or get examined exhibit 

 the characteristic width of the white tips of the outer tail- 

 feathers, as is usual in the Siberian form, the extent of the 

 white in all cases exceeding 2 cm. 



These birds seemed to feed largely in this country ou the 

 seeds of different species of pine-trees. One specimen, which 

 I observed in this neighbouihood for several weeks, was con- 

 stantly seen gathering them from the cones of Piiius strubus 

 and Picea excelsa. 



The bird suspends itself with its feet to the extremities of 

 the branches which bear the cones, takes one off with its bill 

 and Hies away with it, generally to the ground in oak brush- 

 wood, where it proceeds to eat the seeds. Thosc of the 



SKR, VIII.— VOL. I. 2 A 



