238 Mr. H. Seebohm on the Arctic 



Arctic forms are recognized ; but one of these, at least, has 

 been undeservedly neglected. 



There can be little doubt that the Nutcrackers of the 

 Arctic Regions are subspecifically distinct from those of 

 Western Europe and Japan. The Siberian birds have thicker 

 bills ; the upper mandible more than projects beyond the 

 lower; and on an average they have more white on the 

 outer tail-feathers. The Nutcracker is a typical example of 

 a gipsy migrant ; his winter home is wherever he can find 

 food. When the crew of the 'Thames^ wintered on the 

 Arctic Circle in the valley of the Yenesay, the Nutcracker 

 was seen every day ; but in some winters stray birds, and 

 occasionally large flocks, wander far and wide — on the one 

 side to England and the south of France, and on the other to 

 Manchuria and North China. It consequently happens 

 that both forms occur in temperate Europe in winter. So 

 long ago as 1750 the occurrence of two forms of the Nut- 

 cracker in Europe was recorded (Klein, Histor. Av. Prod, 

 p. 61) ; one is described as '^ rostro valido anguloso,^^ and 

 the other as " rostro teretiusculo/^ In 1823 the Nutcracker 

 fell into the hands of the great German species-maker, C. L. 

 Brehm, and the two forms became species (Lehrb. eur. Vog. 

 p. 102), named respectively N. brachyrhynchus and N, nia- 

 crorhynchus. In 1845 the attention of continental natu- 

 ralists was again called to this fact (Selys-Longchamps, Bull. 

 Acad. Bruxelles, xi. p. 298), and in the same year English 

 ornithologists were advised of this paper and pi'esented with 

 excellent figures of the two forms (Fischer, Zoologist, iii. 

 p. 1073) ; but in spite of this reiterated information it was 

 not until 1886 that the subject was properly investigated. 



Dr. Rudolf Blasius, in an admirable pamphlet, " Der 

 Wanderzug der Tannenheher durch Eurojja im Herbste 

 1885 und Winter 1885-86," records the result of an exami- 

 nation of 155 skins of the Nutcracker, and arrives at the 

 conclusion that there is an Eastern and a Western form of 

 this species, which he names Nucifraga caryocatactes lepto- 

 rhynchus and iV. caryocatactes pachyrhynchus respectively. 

 The Eastern form is represented as breeding from East 



