284 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



stoutest. In measuring their respective beaks along 

 the upper mandible, the thin-bill was the longest by the 

 amount of its projection beyond the lower mandible, but 

 measuring round the base of each beak the thin-billed 

 example was about three-eighths of an inch less than 

 the others. In appearance the thick-billed bird has a 

 decidedly corvine character, whilst the thin-billed 

 more nearly resembles the sturnidce. Whether or 

 not this marked difference in the form of the beak 

 may be considered as establishing a specific differ- 

 ence, the fact of examples of both varieties having 

 occurred in this country renders it, as Mr. Fisher 

 remarks in the "Zoologist" (p. 1074),* a subject of 

 considerable interest to the British ornithologist. The 

 figure in Bewick is apparently taken from a thin- 

 billed bird, and that in Yarrell from a thick-billed 

 specimen formerly in his collection, whilst two at least 

 out of the three Norfolk examples have thin bills, as 

 had also a fourth killed at Wisbech, November 8th, 

 1859, as recorded in the "Zoologist" (p. 6809), by Mr. 

 F. W. Foster, of the Wisbech museum. The question 

 has been raised, however, whether this strange differ- 

 ence in the beaks of our European nutcrackers may not 

 be, as is the case with the Australian Neomorpha 

 gouldi) a sexual and not a specific peculiarity. That 

 singular and very interesting New Zealand species, as 

 figured by Mr. Gould in his " Birds of Australia," 

 exhibits even a greater variation in the size and shape 

 of the beak, in different examples, than is found even 

 in the nutcrackers; but the researches of modern 

 naturalists have established beyond a doubt that these 

 birds are but the sexes of one species. " The natives (says 



* " On the two British species or varieties of the nutcracker," 

 by "W. R. Fisher, with a figure of the Rollesby bird and illustrations, 

 showing the difference in form of the thick and thin beaks, &c. 



