COR VID.E—NUTCRA CKER. 



131 



garded as rare and accidental stragglers. The first of the two follow- 

 ing records of its occurrence in Essex may, from the description 

 given, be accepted, but the second is very doubtful. 



Mr. John Cordeaux, a 

 member of the British As- 

 sociation Migration Com- 

 mittee, writes as follows (40. 

 185): " In a migration sche- 

 dule received this morning 

 from Mr. Owen Boyle, of 

 the Landguard Light-house, 

 is the following entry : — 

 ^ April 2nd, 1888 : Two 

 Crows put in an appear- 

 ance, 7.30 a.m. ; larger than 

 Jackdaws ; they had red 

 beaks, and legs, and went 

 north-west.' " 



In Stifford and lis Neigh- 

 bourhood, by the Rev. W. 

 Palin, occurs the following chough, %. 



under West Tilbury: — " There were at that time [1840] 'the Chough,' and of 

 •course the Crow and Herons. All (except the Crow) are happily being frightened 

 away by the plough." There is probably some mistake here. West Tilbury is 

 not a place at all likely ever to have been frequented by Choughs. Mr. Palin, 

 however, again alludes to the subject in More About Stifford (p. 45), saying that 

 the Chough was " common enough here onl}' thirty years ago." 



Nutcracker : Nucifraga caryocatactes. 



A rare and irregular straggler to Britain during autumn. The 

 only records I have of its occurrence in Essex are the following : 



Dr. Bree writes (29. May 7, 1870), " I have lately heard of three unrecorded 

 cases of the capture of Nutcrackers in this neighbourhood in the month of 

 September, ten or twelve years ago. They were all shot in the same locality and 

 about the same time, I saw one of them a few weeks ago." One of the speci- 

 mens thus recorded is now in the Colchester Museum, to which it was presented 

 by the late Dr. Maclean, as I understand on the authority of Dr. Laver. The 

 following interesting note from Mr C. NichoUs of Bovill's Hall, Ardleigh, who 

 has another of the specimens, gives all the details of the occurrence which seem 

 to have been preserved : — 



" The Nutcracker in my possession was shot by myself one day when I was 

 out Partridge shooting in the month of September, in Horkesley parish, consider- 

 ably more than thirty years ago. There was only one bird seen when I shot 

 this ; but within a short time, two more were seen in the neighbourhood, and 

 one shot by Mr. Osborne's keeper in Ardleigh parish. The other was shot in 

 the neighbourhood, but I am uncertain where. For a long time no one knew 

 what bird it was, but on showing it to the late Dr. Bree he told me it was a 

 Nutcracker. I had it stuffed in Colchester, and I think by Mr. Ambrose." 



Mr. Ambrose himself has informed me that this was the case, and that he 

 also preserved the specimen shot in Ardleigh parish, which was killed by a man 



K 2 



