282 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



the present time, of wliicli the first was obtained at 

 Rollesbj, near Yarmouth, on the 30th of October, 

 1844. This bird, in the possession of Mr. J. H. Gurney, 

 was described in the " Zoologist" for 1845'^ (p. 824), by- 

 Mr. W. R. Fisher, as having a long pointed beak, the 

 upper mandible slightly projecting, with the tip horn 

 coloured and the rest black. It had been seen about the 

 same spot for a week before it was shot, and the contents 

 of the stomach consisted entirely of Coleopterous insects. 

 During the same autumn, the appearance of these birds 

 in considerable numbers attracted the attention of con- 

 tinental naturalists, and, according to Yarrell, *^they 

 were particularly noticed in Germany and Belgium, and 

 many appeared in the southern parts of Sweden." From 

 an examination of various specimens procured at that 

 time, a paper was read before the Royal Academy of 

 Sciences at Brussels,t by M. Edm. De Selys-Longchamps, 

 on a supposed specific difference between the nut- 

 crackers of Central Europe and those of Scandinavia, 

 the former having, it was affirmed, sharp pointed beaks, 

 the latter shorter and stouter bills, from which 

 peculiarity the specific term of hrachyrhynchus had been 

 previously applied to them by M. Brehm, in contra- 

 distinction to the thin-billed examples (caryocatactes) . 

 The next occurrence of this bird in Norfolk is recorded 

 in the " Zoologist" for 1853 (p. 4097),t by Mr. James 

 Green, of City Road, London, who says, " I have a fine 



* In this notice the year 1843 is mentioned, but this is 

 evidently a mistake, as in Messrs. Gurney and Fisher's " List" the 

 bird is said to have been killed in 1844, the same year in which 

 so many appeared in Belgium and other parts of the continent. 



f Printed, with illustrations, in the Bulletin of the Academy, 

 torn, xi.. No. 10. 



J This is also recorded in the same journal by Mr. J. H. 

 Grurney (p. 4124). 



