NUTCRACKER. 339 



brown ; upper tail-coverts umber-brown occasionally tipped 

 with white ; tail-feathers blackish-brown, glossed with green, 

 and exhibiting indistinctly the barring so characteristic of 

 the family, the middle pair narrowly, and the rest conspic- 

 uously, tipped with white, which occupies more space on 

 each feather approaching the outside, but is subject to much 

 individual variation as to extent ; lower tail-coverts pure 

 white : legs, toes and claws, black. 



The whole length varies from twelve inches and three- 

 quarters to fifteen and a quarter. From the carpal joint 

 to the end of the wing, six and seven-eighths to seven inches 

 and three-quarters ; the first primary is about an inch and 

 a half shorter than the second, which is three-quarters of 

 an inch shorter than the third ; the fourth, fifth and sixth 

 about a quarter of an inch longer than the third. 



The sexes do not differ out\vardly. In the breeding- 

 season many of the white spots disappear or lessen, through 

 the wearing off of the feathers at the tip, and the brown of 

 the whole plumage becomes lighter. The nestling much 

 resembles its parents, even to the gloss on the wing- 

 feathers, but its colours are much less pure and distinct 

 the brown being sooty, the spots larger and of a dirty white, 

 and the lower tail-coverts are smoky- white. 



The difference in the length of the bill (which varies from 

 2-2 to 1-7 in.) first noticed by Klein in examples of the Nut- 

 cracker has led some to suppose that we had in Europe two 

 species to the shorter-billed of which, presumably from 

 Scandinavia, the name Nucifraga brachyrhynchus was ap- 

 plied ; but the best authorities are now persuaded that no 

 specific distinction can be made out, and that the length of 

 the bill does not depend upon locality. There is however 

 some ground for thinking it a sexual character, for males 

 seem to have this feature longer than females, and the case 

 of the New- Zealand " Huia " (Heterolocha , formerly called 

 Neomorpha) has been cited as analogous. In the latter bird, 

 now said to belong to the Sturnidce, the difference, which 

 is much greater than in the Nutcracker, certainly is sexual, 

 but the male has the short and the female the long bill. 



