54 NUFCRACKER. 
neck, and nape, dark brown; chin, throat, breast, and back, 
brown, each feather terminated with an elongated triangular 
spot of dull white; on the throat these spots are small, on 
the sides of the head larger, and largest on the upper part 
of the breast, but I think that all the white markings are 
variable with age. 
The wings have the first quill feather one inch and a half 
shorter than the second, the second three quarters of an inch 
shorter than the third, the third the same length as the 
eighth, the fourth, fifth, and sixth, nearly of equal length, 
one quarter of an inch longer than the third, and the longest 
in the wing; greater wing coverts, blackish brown, the ends 
of the feathers rather lighter in colour than the other parts; 
sometimes white; lesser wing coverts, brown tipped with white. 
The primaries and secondaries have a small triangular spot 
towards the tip, from the sixth to the twelfth feather; greater 
and lesser under wing coverts, dusky. The tail, which is 
composed of twelve feathers, is blackish brown, with slight 
blue reflections, as have the other darkest parts of the plumage, 
the two contre: ones entirely so, excepting in some specimens, 
at the tips; the next on each side has a narrow white tip, 
the next a more extended one, the next still more, and so 
on, the outside ones having a space of three quarters of an 
inch, or more, of white; beneath it is greyish brown, ending 
in dull white; upper tail coverts, black, or blackish brown; 
under tail coverts, greyish brown, sometimes quite white; legs, 
black and scaled, as the Crows; ‘toes, the same on the upper 
surface; claws, ens. 
In the female the brown colour of the plumage has a tinge 
of red. In some instances these virus have occurred entirely 
white; and one spotted with black and white. 
There is an interesting paper in the ‘Zoologist, by W. R. 
Fisher, Esq., of Ya armouth, p-p. 1073-1074, “respecting two 
supposed species of the Nutcracker as having occurred in 
Britain. The most evident mark of difference is in the form 
of the bill, that of the one being thick and obtuse, and of 
the other more slender and poimted, and the upper part, as 
stated, somewhat longer than the lower one. That very 
eminent naturalist, M. De Selys Longchamps, has expressed 
his belief, in a paper read before the Institute of Belgium, 
that the two species are distinct, and I cannot myself but 
incline to this opinion, In the absence, however, of either 
figure or separate description of the two, I am obliged, for 
