NUTCRACKER. 125 



of Italy. Although properly speaking the Nutcracker is not 

 a migratory bird, yet M. Vieillot observes that they fre- 

 quently wander from one part of the country to another, pro- 

 bably because some article of food fails them. They unite 

 occasionally, forming numerous flocks, quit the mountains, 

 and descend to spread their numbers over the plains, always 

 selecting those in which they find abundance of firs. Their 

 food consists of insects, seeds of pines, beech-mast, and 

 nuts : these last they are said to crack like the Nuthatch, 

 by fixing them in a crevice of the bark of a tree, and then 

 pecking at them with great force with the beak. Messrs. 

 Wolf and Meyer, in their History of the Birds of Germany, 

 and M. Nilsson, in his Ornithology of Sweden, and M. 

 Temminck, in his Manual of the Birds of Europe, each 

 state that the Nutcracker does occasionally feed on eggs or 

 young birds, thus resembling the Crows ; and it is also said 

 that it can climb the bark of a tree like a Woodpecker. A 

 gentleman who had travelled in Norway, where he had seen 

 the Nutcracker, says, " That they frequent the extreme tops 

 of the Pines, keeping a sharp look out, and very shy. When 

 on the wing, the flight is like that of the Jackdaw. They 

 nest in holes of trees, which they excavate or enlarge suffi- 

 ciently for their purpose, like the Woodpeckers ;" and this is 

 not the only point of resemblance to that tribe of birds, for 

 he found that the middle feathers of the tail were worn by 

 climbing among the trunks and branches of trees. 



The eggs are said to be five or six in number, of a yellow- 

 ish grey colour, with a few spots of yellowish or wood-brown. 

 An egg in the collection of Mr. Willmot, of the Temple, 

 which is believed to be that of a Nutcracker, and which that 

 gentleman very kindly lent me to have a drawing made from 

 it for my use in this work, measures one inch one line in 

 length, by ten lines in breadth, is also of a greyish white 

 colour, spotted over the larger end with bluish grey and light 

 ash brown. 



