476 NUCIFRAGA CARYOCATACTES. 



lads, one of them (Laurits by name) recommended to them by the school- 

 master, again made search, but were again disappointed as to eggs, for the only 

 Nutcracker's nest they found (on the 9th of April) contained three young birds 

 about a week old. They determined, however, not to be baffled, and in the 

 following year, 1864, though unable tliemselves to revisit Bornholm, success 

 crowned their efforts, as I had the pleasure of briefly announcing to the 

 Zoological Society on the 24th of March, 1865 (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1865, p. 256), 

 and of subsequently giving (again from the Pastor's information) the particulars 

 of the taking of the nest by the same lads as had been with him and Herr 

 Erichseu the year before. They had learnt to know the birds, and were 

 taught precisely what to do. They kept on the watch all the winter, and as 

 spring approached searched carefully for the nest. What followed I may here 

 repeat from my published remarks (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1867, p. 163) : — 



" At length, on the 23rd of March, after eight days' labour, the nest was 

 found, in the same part of the forest as that 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 on 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. He writes, * They have, I think, a peculiar character, and I 

 believe that they cannot he easily confounded with others. It is always diffi- 

 cult to give a proper description of a bird's egg ; but I am not able to find any 

 likeness between these and the supposed eggs of the bird pictured in Badeker's 

 plates*. They are smaller than the eggs of lica varia, and larger than those 

 of Garrulus glandarius. The gi-ound-colour is a light bluish-green, not unlike 

 that of an egg of Sturnus vuhjaris, which they also resemble in form. Never- 

 theless thfty do not deny the type of the Corvidce. They .are sprinkled over 

 with very fine spots of leather-yellow [buff] or perhaps olive. Two of them 

 are spotted more distinctly ; one is almost spotless.' " ^ 



It is unnecessary for me to add to the Pastor's desciiption, which I have no 

 doubt was quite accurate when it was written. I have only to add that the 

 egg I had figured (as above) was the most strongly marked specimen. The next 

 year he wrote to me that the same young men had been employed as before, 

 but that owing to the long winter the birds were late, and that it was not 

 until the 10th of April that a nest, containing three eggs, was found. In the 

 hope that a fourth would be laid it was left till the 15th, when being taken 

 they proved to be much incubated. Another nest with four fresh eggs was 

 found on the 30th, and the Pastor stated that there was the strongest likeness 

 between all the three sets thus obtained, and there was the same similarity in 



" * Journ. fiir Orn. 1856, taf. i. fig. 1, and Eier der Europaischen Vogel, taf. 1. 

 fig. 14, and taf. Ixxvi. fig. 4. Herein I may say that I do not agree with the 

 Pastor, though when fresh they may have looked very different." 



* Herre Fischer published an account of the discovery, "^gget af Noddekrigen 

 (Caryocatactes ffuttatus),'" in (Kroyei''?) ' Naturhistorisk Tidsskrift' for 1864 

 (pp. 1-7). 



