50 BRITISH BIRDS. 



Last yeai';, accompanied by Mr. J. C. Musters, I paid a 

 visit to Bosnia. With the kind assistance of Herr Otmar 

 Reiser, the well-known ornithologist and curator of the 

 Museum at Sarajevo, we searched for Nutcrackers' nests 

 in the mountains near that town. It was an unfavourable 

 season, as during* March the weather had been very cold, 

 and a oTeat deal of snow had fallen in the mountains. 

 This seemed to have very much interfered with the 

 building operations of the Nutcrackers. 



A Bosnian peasant first showed us a nest, which was 

 not yet ready for eggs, on April 8th. When we first 

 visited this nest the Nutcrackers were busy lining it. 

 They were excessively tame, and both birds kept con- 

 tinually flying to and from the nest with moss and other 

 materials required for the lining, without showing any 

 sign of fear, although we sat watching them for a long 

 time at a distance of less than twenty yards. Subsequently 

 two eggs were laid in this nest, and the hen bird then 

 commenced to sit. 



Herr Reiser, however, who has had a greater personal 

 experience of the nesting habits of the Nutcrackers than 

 any other European ornithologist, tells me that it is most 

 exceptional for this bird to sit on two eggs. The usual 

 clutch is three or four, the latter number being less usual 

 than the former. 



During the next four days, assisted by several Bosnian 

 peasants, we hunted hard for fresh nests ; but although 

 we were shown at least a dozen from which Herr 

 Reiser or one or other of the peasants had taken tlie eggs 

 during the three previous seasons, we only found one nest 

 ourselves. This nest was placed close against the stem 

 of a small spruce tree, about a foot in diameter, and about 

 twenty feet from the ground. When we found it the 

 bird was on the nest, and did not fly off till I commenced 

 to climb the tree. There were only two eggs in the nest, 

 and as I could see that they were fresh, I left them. Two 

 days later we again visited the nest, and found the bird 

 again on. There were still only two eggs in it, but we 



