NATURAL HISTORY. 



Sub-family b. Corvincc. 

 NUCIFRAGA. (Lat. NKX, a nut ; franga, I break.) 



Caiyocatactes (Gr. KapvoKaTuftrrjc, properly, the Nuthatch), the 

 Nutcracker Croiv. 



The NUTCRACKER CROW, whose true position in the scale 

 of creation has so long bewildered naturalists, is about the 

 size of a jackdaw, but its form is more slender, and the tail is 

 longer. It is seldom found in this country, but is very com- 

 mon in more northern districts. In its habits it displays a 

 singular mixture of the woodpecker and the nuthatch, and 

 exhibits so few of the well-known habits of the Crows, that 

 observers might well be perplexed where to place it. It is 

 now supposed to be one of the connecting links between the 

 crows and the woodpeckers. It runs about the branches of 

 trees, using its tail for a support, and pecks away the bark in 

 order to reach the insects beneath, just as the woodpeckers do. 

 It also pecks open the fir-cones, in search of the hidden seed, 

 and breaks nuts by repeated strokes of its bill, like the nuthatch. 

 It is usually seen in flocks, but is not so wary as the crows. Its 

 eggs are laid at the bottom of a hole in some tree. They are of 

 a greyish yellow colour, diversified with a few dark grey spots. 



