144 BRITISH BIRDS. WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



of this species at a meeting of the Zoological Society of London : he had received 

 them from Pastor Theobald, and J. C. H. Fisher, of Copenhagen, who had taken 

 them in Bornholm. At that time they had failed to secure eggs of the species. 

 At a meeting in January, 1867, Professor Newton exhibited a nest with four eggs, 

 observing: "In 1863, my friends were again disappointed of getting the eggs of 

 this bird, which proved to be a still earlier breeder than they had given it credit 

 for; and on the gth of April three young ones were found. In 1894 they deter- 

 mined to " be wise in time." They kept two young men on the watch all the 

 winter, and as spring approached careful search was made. At length, on the 

 23rd of March, after eight days' labour, the nest was found, in the same part of 

 the forest as the nest of the year before, being indeed only some fifty feet from 

 the same spot. It was, therefore, in all probability, built by the same pair of 

 birds. It was in a fir tree, about fifty feet high, and built quite in the same 

 manner as that of the former year. The seeker took the precaution first to climb 

 up a near-extending tree, and then, seeing the Nutcracker on the nest, ascended 

 the nest-tree itself and took the four eggs, which, when sent to Herr Theobald, 

 were blown by him and found to be quite fresh." 



In 1865, owing to the severity of the preceding winter, these gentlemen did 

 not receive a nest quite so early, their seekers only discovering one containing 

 three eggs on the loth of April ; but they secured a second, with four eggs, on 

 the 3Oth of the same month: finally, in March 1866, a nest with one egg was 

 found, but the birds deserted it without laying again. Seebohm observes that 

 " the breeding-season of the Nutcracker in the Arctic regions is evidently June 

 and July at least ten weeks later than in Central Europe." 



The situation of the nest is said to be always on a not very tall pine-tree, 

 from eighteen to twenty-five feet from the ground, on a branch against the stem. 

 It is about a foot in diameter, about five inches in depth, with the cavity four 

 inches in diameter, and from one and a half to two inches in depth. The 

 foundation is composed of lichen-covered twigs of larch and spruce, finished off 

 with fresh birch-twigs, and lined with dry grass and the inner bark of trees, with 

 a little loose earth ; the final lining is grass, generally dry, but sometimes fresh." 

 The number of eggs is from three to five ; they are bluish or creamy- white, with 

 the surface spots olive or leather-brown, and with grey shell-spots : in the distri- 

 bution of the markings and their size they vary much as in other Corvida. 



Although, in the winter, Seebohm says that " Their tameness was quite absurd. 

 They allowed us to go within three feet of them ; and sometimes they even 

 permitted us to touch them with a stick," this confidence disappears during the 

 breeding-season when they become very shy and wary. 



