134 CORVID^l. 



munications in Ornithology I have so frequently had the 

 advantage of acknowledging, told me when he was in 

 London that these birds appeared on his grounds in small 

 parties of six or seven together, like families, and as he 

 watched them, he observed that they were very busy turn- 

 ing over and picking off the moss and lichens attached to 

 the rocks for the sake of the insects they found under- 

 neath. A few specimens of the Nutcracker visited this 

 country. One was killed at Rollesby, near Yarmouth, on 

 the 30th of October, and passed into the possession of J. H. 

 Gurney, Esq., of Norwich, as recorded in the Zoologist by 

 W. R. Fisher, Esq. The stomach contained nothing but 

 coleopterous insects. Another was killed in September, 

 1844, while flying over a field of turnips, at Littlington, 

 near Alfristone, in Sussex, and was preserved for the col- 

 lection of Mr. Wm. Borrer, Jun. The Zoological Society 

 had a Nutcracker alive in the aviary for some months. 

 Contrary to the power proclaimed by the name, this bird 

 cannot crack nuts ; when cracked for him he eats the 

 kernels greedily, but is fed principally with hemp-seed. 

 Some of the actions of this bird resemble those of the Nut- 

 hatch, and he demolishes the woodwork of his cage like a 

 "Woodpecker. So far back as 1831, M. Brehm had in- 

 cluded in his Manual of the Birds of Germany, two species 

 of Nutcracker, characterised principally by the difference 

 observed in the length and strength of the beak, and 

 named in reference to these peculiarities. The examination 

 of several examples in the autumn of 1844, induced M. 

 Edm. de Selys-Longchamps, of Belgium, to adopt the 

 opinion of M. Brehm. Among our British examples both 

 these modifications of the beak occur, but some specimens 

 also exhibit intermediate lengths and characters. The 

 figure in Bewick's British Birds appears to me to have 

 been taken from a long and slender billed bird ; that here 



