CORVID.E. 243 



other specimens have been shot in the neighbouring 

 county of Devon, and a few others in various parts 

 of England ; but I can find no other record of a 

 Somersetshire specimen. There is a specimen of this 

 bird in the collection of the late Mr. Pophain, of 

 Bagborough, now Mr. Bisset's, but no one knows 

 anything about it. 



The food of the Nutcracker is said to consist of 

 insects, seeds of pines, beech-masts and nuts, which 

 it is said to crack by hammering with its beak like 

 the Nuthatch. 



The nest is placed in a hole in a tree, either exca- 

 vated entirely or enlarged by the bird itself. 



The Nutcracker is rather an obscure and dull- 

 coloured bird in plumage, which may have caused it 

 occasionally to be overlooked. " The beak is black ; 

 the lore, or space between the beak and the eye, dull 

 white ; irides brown ; top of the head umber-brown, 

 without spots; the sides of the head, the scapulars, 

 the whole of the back, the lesser wing-coverts, and 

 all the under surface of the body, clove-brown, each 

 feather terminating with an elongated triangular 

 spot of dull white ; the greater wing-coverts and the 

 wings blackish brown, the ends of the feathers rather 

 lighter in colour than the other parts; the rump 

 uniform clove-brown, without spots; upper tail- 

 coverts blackish brown; the middle pair of the 

 twelve tail-feathers also blackish brown, without any 

 white ; the next tail-feather on each side has a narrow 



