X52 The NrTCKACKRR 



this character alone, which was first pointed out to nie by Mr. Joseph Abrahams, 

 I have never yet failed to correctly pair up the sexes of birds for breeding 

 purposes, where no assistance could be gained by a study of the plumage. I am, 

 therefore, certain that its importance has not been appreciated by Ornithologists. 



In his account of the Nutcracker, vSeebohm takes the late Rev. F. O. Morris 

 somewhat too seriously: there is no doubt that when the latter gentleman compiled 

 his work on British Birds, he was unable to discover any facts relating to the 

 nidification of our species, and, therefore, fell back wpon the nesting habits of the 

 genus as given in Jerdon's Birds of India, where we read — "They breed in holes 

 in trees, which they excavate, or enlarge, with their powerful Woodpecker-like 

 bills," etc., and doubtless when the revised edition was published in 1870, Mr. 

 Morris had not discovered that a genuine description of the nest had been pub- 

 lished in 1862, which differed in all points from that accepted by Dr. Jerdou. 



In June, 1862, Professor Newton exhibited the nest and fnlly fledged j-oung 

 of this species at a meeting of the Zoological Society of London : he had received 

 them from Pastor Theobald, and J. C. H. Fisher, of Copenhagen, who had taken 

 them in Bornholm. At that time they had failed to secure eggs of the species. 

 At a meeting in January, 1867, Professor Newton exhibited a nest with four eggs, 

 observing: — "In 1863, my friends were again disappointed of getting the eggs of 

 this bird, which proved to be a still earlier breeder than the}' had given it credit 

 for; and on the 9th of April three young ones were found. In 1864 the}' deter- 

 mined to ' be wise in time.' They kept two young men on the watch all the 

 winter, and as spring approached carefnl search was made. At length, on the 

 23rd of March, after eight days' labour, the nest was found, in the same part of 

 the forest as the nest of the year before, being indeed only some fifty feet from 

 the .same spot. It was, therefore, in all probability, built by the same pair of 

 birds. It was in a fir tree, about fifty feet high, and built quite in the same 

 manner as that of the former year. The seeker took the precaution first to climb 

 up a near-extending tree, and then, seeing the Nutcracker on the nest, ascended 

 the nest-tree itself and took the four eggs, which, when sent to Herr Theobald, 

 were blown by him and found to be quite fresh." 



In 1865, owing to the severity of the preceding winter, these gentlemen did 

 not receive a nest quite so early, their seekers only discovering one containing 

 three eggs on the lotli of April; but they secured a second, with four eggs, on 

 the 30th of the same mouth: finally, in March 1866, a nest with one egg was 

 found, but the birds deserted it without laying again. Seebohm obser\es that 

 " the breeding-season of the Nutcracker in the Arctic regions is evidently Jnne 

 and July — at least ten weeks later than in Central Europe." 



