130 CORVID.E. 



also exhibit intermediate lengths and characters. The 

 figure in Bewick's British Birds appears to me to have 

 been taken from a long and slender billed bird ; that here 

 given is taken from a bird with a shorter and stout bill. 

 The living bird at the Zoological Garden has a slender bill. 

 Mr. Fisher, at page 824 of the 25th number of the 

 Zoologist, has given a faithful outline of the form of the 

 beak in Mr. Gurney's Yarmouth bird, which is also slender, 

 and measures one inch and seven-eighths in length, from 

 the commencement of the feathers on the forehead to the 

 point ; the bill in the bird figured in this work measures 

 full one quarter of an inch shorter, and there are differences 

 also in the plumage. The opportunity of examining a con- 

 siderable number of specimens, of which the age and sex 

 are known, is necessary to assist in arriving at a good 

 opinion on the question ; in the absence of such opportunity 

 I am induced to consider the differences of the lengthened 

 bill and brighter plumage as marks of greater age. 



The eggs are said to be five or six in number, of a 

 yellowish grey colour, with a few spots of yellowish or 

 wood-brown. An egg in the collection of Mr. Willmot, of 

 the Temple, which is believed to be that of a Nutcracker, 

 and which that gentleman very kindly lent me to have a 

 drawing made from it for my use in this work, measures 

 one inch one line in length, by ten lines in breadth, is also 

 of a greyish white colour, spotted over the larger end with 

 bluish grey and light ash brown. 



Besides the countries already named as inhabited by the 

 Nutcracker, Pennant says he received a specimen from 

 Denmark by means of M. Brunnich, author of the Ornitho- 

 logia Borealis, and the bird is also included in the Zoologia 

 Danica of Muller. It is said to be common in the pine 

 forests of Russia, Siberia, and Kamtschatka. 



