NUTCRACKER. 53 
These birds, thongh not migratory, strictly speaking, move 
about from one part of the country to another. They occa- 
sionally go in large flocks, but generally in small ones of six 
or eight, probably the parents and their young, descending at 
times from the woods of the mountains, to those of the plains; 
their food being furnished by the various cone-bearing trees. 
They are shy and wary birds, like the Crow tribe, and it is 
also said that they climb the trunks of trees like the Wood- 
peckers, and that the end of their tails are worn, from resting 
on them, as those birds do when ascending trees. They fre- 
quent the depths of the forest, remote from observation; but 
when they have young they may be approached very closely. 
These birds are easily tamed, but they have the unfriendly 
habit of devouring any companions of their captivity. As in 
the case of the Woodpeckers, it mast be a strong cage that 
will confine them; but if well supphed with nuts, they solace 
themselves therewith. 
The flight of the Nutcracker ‘resembles that of the Jackdaw, 
but being wavering and unsteady, he avoids crossing any 
extended space. In the course of its migration, should any 
open country intervene, this bird avails itself of every bush 
in its way for the purpose of resting.’ 
Its food, whence its name, consists of nuts; which, like the 
Nuthatch, at fixes in a crevice of a tree, and pecks at till 
the shell is broken, the seeds of pine trees, beech-mast, acorns, 
berries, and insects of various sorts, bees, wasps, and beetles. 
It sometimes attacks and devours birds, as also their eggs; 
and one has been known to eat a squirrel. 
The note, oddly enough, resembles the word ‘crack’ ‘crack,’ 
as also ‘curr.’ The latter he loudly utters in the spring of 
the year, perched on the top of a tree. 
The nest is placed in holes of trees, which they scoop out 
like the Woodpeckers, till their purpose is gained. 
The eggs are five or six in number, of a yellowish grey 
colour, spotted with lighter and darker shades of brown. 
Male; length, one foot and nearly two inches; the bill is 
black, except the tip of the upper part, which, projecting 
beyond the lower one, though both get worn down by the 
‘tough morsels’ it has to operate on to an equal length, is 
horn-colour; the space between the bill and the eye is dull 
white; iris, brown; bristles, white with brown streaks, cover 
the nostrils. A sort of semi-crest, like the Jay’s, surmounts 
the head, which is brown and unspotted; forehead, crown, 
