CORVIDS. 243 
other specimens have been shot in the neighbouring 
county of Devon, and a few others in various parts 
of England; but I can find no other record ofa 
Somersetshire specimen. There is a specimen of this 
bird in the collection of the late Mr. Popham, of 
Bagborough, now Mr. Bisset’s, but no one knows 
anything about it. 
The food of the Nutcracker is said to consist of 
insects, seeds of pines, beech-masts and nuts, which 
it is said to crack by hammering with its beak like 
the Nuthatch. 
The nest is placed in a hole in a tree, either exca- 
vated entirely or enlarged by the bird itself. 
The Nutcracker is rather an obscure and dull- 
coloured bird in plumage, which may have caused it 
occasionally to be overlooked. ‘“ The beak is black ; 
the lore, or space between the beak and the eye, dull 
white; irides brown; top of the head umber-brown, 
without spots; the sides of the head, the scapulars, 
the whole of the back, the lesser wing-coverts, and 
all the under surface of the body, clove-brown, each 
feather terminating with an elongated triangular 
spot of dull white; the greater wing-coverts and the 
wings blackish brown, the ends of the feathers rather 
lighter in colour than the other parts; the rump 
uniform clove-brown, without spots; upper tail- 
coverts blackish brown; the middle pair of the 
twelve tail-feathers also blackish brown, without any 
white; the next tail-feather on each side has a narrow 
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