66 CORVID#%. 
Genus NUCIFRAGA Briss., 1760. 
The genus Nucifraga contains the Nutcrackers, birds of well- 
marked form and colour, two of which are found within Indian 
limits, inhabiting the higher part of the Himalayas where they 
are resident. 
¢ In the Nuterackers the plumage is more or less spotted with 
white ; the bill is straight, pointed and about as long as the head ; 
the nasal bristles are short and stiff and completely cover the 
nostrils; but the tail is short and very little rounded. 
Key to Species. 
A. Rump and upper tail-coverts not 
marked with white .......... N.caryocatacteshemispila, p. 66. 
B. Rump and_ upper _ tail-coverts 
marked with white .......... N. multipunctata, p. 67. 
+ (46) Nucifraga caryocatactes hemispila. 
Tue Himatayan NUTCRACKER. 
Nucifraga hemispila Vigors, P.Z.8., 1830, p. 8 (Himalayas) ; Blanf. & 
Oates, i, p. 41. 
Vernacular names. Lho-kariyo-pho (Lepcha). 
Description. Narial bristles black and white; forehead, crown, 
nape, hind neck and upper tail-coverts chocolate-brown ; with these 
exceptions the whole of the plumage is umber-brown, the sides of 
the head and neck streaked with white; chin and throat with a 
few small white shaft-streaks ; the back, breast and upper abdomen 
with oval white drops ; under tail-coverts pure white; wings glossy 
black, the lesser and median coverts with triangular white tips ; 
afew of the inner primaries with a large oval white mark on the 
inner webs, probably disappearing with age, as it is absent in some 
birds ; central tail-feathers black, the others broadly tipped white, 
the amount of white increasing outwardly. 
Some birds have the breast-spots pale rufescent instead of white, 
a feature which seems to have nothing to do with age. 
Colours of soft parts. Legs and feet black; iris reddish brown 
to hazel or deep brown ; bill brown with paler tips. 
Measurements. Total length about 370 mm.; tail about 150 to 
160 mm.; wing 205 to 225 mm., averaging about 210 or rather 
more; bill 40 to45 mm.; tarsus about 40 mm. 
The young are pale brown, with rufescent drops everywhere 
instead of white. These, however, turn white at the first moult, 
when the head also acquires the white colour. 
This bird is merely a local race of the European Nutcracker, 
from which it differs in having a far darker head, the centre of 
the throat and neck unspotted with white and the outer tail- 
feathers almost entirely white instead of merely tipped with white. 
