The Nutcracker 151 



Familv-CORl'ID.E. 



The Nutcracker. 



Aiiii/rut^d Ciiryocatachs, LiXX. 



OCCURS in pine-forests tlironghont tlie Palrearetic region; breeding in 

 Enrope, in vSontli Norwaj', Sweden, some of the islands of the Baltic, the 

 Black Forest, the Alps, Carpathians, and nionntains of Hungar_v : it 

 probably breeds also in the monntains of Southern Spain and Sardinia. Although 

 apparently a resident bird in the countries of its birth, it occasionallv wanders in 

 winter, occurring in various other portions of Europe, as well as in Japan and 

 North China. 



To Great Britain the Nutcracker is an occasional straggler, about twenty-five 

 tolerably well authenticated instances of its appearance in our islands having 

 occurred, usually in autumn or at the commencement of winter ; but in May, 

 1899 one frequented a fir-plantation near Thetford, Norfolk, one was shot at Ilkley, 

 Yorkshire, in January 1901, and another at Benendeu, Kent, in January' 1905. In 

 Scotland it has occurred, but not in Ireland. 



In colouring the Nutcracker is dull chocolate, freely .spotted with white, 

 excepting on the crown, wings, and tail : wings greenish-black, some of the 

 secondaries tipped with white ; the tail feathers black, tipped with white ; bill 

 brownish-black; feet black; iris brown. Female similar, but rather smaller and 

 with the wings slightly browner. Young sordid brownish, with the spots greyish, 

 but otherwise like adults. 



Stevenson (Birds of Norfolk, p. 284) commenting upon the difference in the 

 form of the bill in various examples of this bird shot in Great Britain, suggests 

 that it is a sexual character; the distinctions which he records are exactly such 

 as one would expect to find — the male with a stout straight bill, the female with 

 a longer and decidedl}' narrower one.* I believe that all Passerine birds differ 

 sexually in this respect, and that the male birds recognize the females by their 

 faces alone ; indeed there is little difficulty in detecting the dissimilarity in the 

 features of any of these birds, when the sexes are compared side by side. Using 



* This difference is, however, frequentl}- reversed and undoubtedly Stevenson sexed his birds iucorrectl3', 

 inasmuch as an examination of the specimens in the Natural History Museum convinced me that the male 

 has the longer and more slender bill, not the female. 



