NUTCRACKER. 283 



specimen of the nutcracker, which, was shot by a fisher- 

 man off Yarmouth on the 7 th of this month (October, 

 1853); it is in a beautiful state of preservation;" to 

 which the editor, Mr. Edward Newman, appended the 

 following note : — " This bird was brought to me in the 

 flesh." I have been unable to ascertain if this specimen 

 had a pointed or blunt beak, as Mr. Newman cannot 

 remember at this distance of time, nor can I now 

 ascertain to whom the bird belongs. The third and last 

 Norfolk example was shot off a tree in a garden at 

 Gorleston, also near Yarmouth, on the 8th of October, 

 1864, and is now in the collection of the Eev. C. J. 

 Lucas, of Burgh. I had the opportunity of examining 

 this bird in the flesh, which has a narrow-pointed bill, 

 and proved on dissection to be a male. The stomach, 

 which was very muscular in texture, was fiUed with the 

 remains of a large dung beetle (Geotrupes stercorarius) . 

 The plumage may be thus described: — Upper parts of 

 the head pure hair brown ; all the under surface, with 

 the sides of the head and upper portions of the back, 

 mottled with white on a chocolate ground, the patches 

 of white occupying the centre of each feather; a few 

 small white spots on the tail-coverts ; lower part of the 

 back plain hair brown ; tail feathers, twelve in number, 

 the two centre ones black, all the rest with white tips, 

 deepest on the outside ones, and graduating to the 

 centre ; secondary wing-coverts slightly edged with 

 white, showing more on one side than the other. In 

 comparing this specimen with two thick-billed nut- 

 crackers in the museum collection, I found the white 

 margins of the tail feathers somewhat deeper in the 

 thin-billed bird, which is generally darker in its plumage 

 and less inclined to any reddish tinge. The length of 

 the quill feathers in the wings about the same in either 

 case. Tarsi, the same length in both the thick and thin- 

 billed birds, but the legs and feet of the former the 

 2o2 



