NUTCRACKER. INSESSORES. NUCIFRAGA. 369 



hatch, it breaks by repeated strokes of the bill. It selects Nest, &c. 

 for nidification the hole of a decayed tree, and this, by the 

 labour of its bill, it frequently enlarges. It lays five or six 

 eggs, of a yellowish-grey colour, with a few spots of yellow- 

 ish or wood-brown. It inhabits woods and forests, in moun- 

 tainous regions, and is very numerous in many of the northern 

 parts of Europe, living in large flocks. It is abundant in Foreign 

 Norway, Sweden, and parts of Germany, and in some dis- 

 tricts is a regular bird of passage. It is common also in 

 Russia ; and, in Northern Asia, it occurs in Siberia and 

 Kamtschatka. 



PLATE 33*. The figure is represented of the natural size, 



from a British specimen in the Edinburgh Museum. 

 Bill black. Irides brown. The bristly feathers covering General 

 the nostrils brown. Crown of the head and nape of the t ion. 

 neck blackish-brown. Quills black. Tail black, with a 

 broad white bar at the end. The rest of the plumage 

 of a deep reddish-brown, inclining to umber-brown, va- 

 ried upon the back with white guttiform spots. Those 

 upon the under parts are disposed longitudinally upon 

 each feather. Legs and claws black. 



TRIBE IV. SCANSORES, AUCT. 



No members of the fourth and fifth families of the Coni- 

 rostres (Bncerida and Musophagi&e) being known in Bri- 

 tain, or even in the European Continent, we pass over to 

 the Scansores, a fourth tribe of the order Insessores. This 

 tribe (as its name imports) contains all such birds as are 

 eminent for their grasping and climbing qualities, most of 

 them distinguished by their feet having the toes disposed in 

 pairs; although many genera (exhibiting similar habits, and 

 closely connected by affinity) are necessarily admitted, which 

 have the feet formed upon the general plan, but so modified 



VOL. I. A a 



