CORVID^. 



223 



THE NUTCRACKER. 

 NuciFRAGA CARVOCATACiES (Linnrcus). 



The Nutcracker is a very irregular visitor to England and AN'ales, 

 but altogether about twenty fairly authenticated occurrences are on 

 record ; principally in the southern half of our island, and all of 

 them, so far as is known, in autumn. In Scotland one was shot at 

 Invergarry in October 1868, and one in Orkney (Buckley) ; but as 

 yet there is no evidence that the bird has visited Ireland. It is a 

 forest-loving species, and does not, as a rule, wander much from its 

 usual haunts ; but in autumn large flocks are sometimes formed, and 

 in search of food considerable migrations take place, to which we 

 are indebted for its erratic appearances. 



This conspicuous bird frequents districts in which conifers prepon- 

 derate; breeding south of lat. 67° in Scandinavia, in some of the 

 islands of the Baltic, the Black Eorest, the French, Swiss, and Italian 

 Alps, the Carpathians, and the mountains of Hungary. It is also said 

 to nest in some of the pine-clad valleys of the Pyrenees, on both 

 sides of which it undoubtedly occurs ; and, as it has been observed 

 in Estreniadura in Spain, it is not improbable that it may inhabit the 



