1867.] PROF. NKWTON ON NKW BIRDs' LOGS. 103 



given it credit for ; and on the 9th of April three young ones were 

 found. In 1864 they determined to "be wise in time." They kept 

 two young men on the watch all the winter, and as spring approached 

 careful search was made. At length, on the 23rd of March, after 

 eight days' labour, the nest was found, in the same part of the forest 

 as that of the year before, being indeed only some fifty feet from the 

 same spot. It was, therefore, in all probability built by the same 

 pair of birds. It was on a fir tree, about fifty feet high, and built 

 quite in the same manner as that of the former year. The seeker 

 took the precaution first to climb up a near-extending tree, and then, 

 seeing the Nutcracker on the nest, ascended the nest-tree itself and 

 took the four eggs, which, when sent to Herr Theobald, were blown 

 by him and found to be quite fresh. He writes, "They have, I 

 think, a peculiar character, and I believe that they cannot be easily 

 confounded with others. It is always difficult to give a proper de- 

 scription of a bird's egg ; but I am not able to find any likeness be- 

 tween these and the supposed eggs of the bird pictured in Biideker's 

 plates *. They are smaller than the eggs of Pica varia, and larger 

 than those of Garrulus fflandarius. The ground-colour is a light 

 bluish green, not unlike that of an egg of Sturnus vulgaris, which 

 they also resemble in form. Nevertheless they do not deny the type 

 of the CorvidcB. They are sprinkled over with very fine spots of 

 leather-yellow [bufF] or perhaps olive. Two of them are spotted 

 more distinctly ; one is almost spotless." 



I need not, I think, add anything to Pastor Theobald's description ; 

 but I take this opportunity of giving a figure of the most fully 

 marked specimen (PI. XV. fig. 2), and also an extract from a letter 

 dated 27th of May, 186.i, which I have since received from him, re- 

 counting some further successes: — " The long and severe winter [of 

 1864-65] seems to have retarded the Nutcrackers from laying their 

 eggs at the ordinary time. The two young men we had engaged in 

 Bornholm commenced their work on the i2th of March, but did 

 not succeed in finding a nest (which contained three eggs) before the 

 10th of April, They waited some days, hoping that a fourth would 

 be added, and took the three eggs on the 1 5th, when they found 

 them much incubated. When these eggs were sent to us, we heard 

 that another fresh nest was discovered. We awaited the result not 

 without anxiety, when the steamer brought us four eggs taken from 

 that nest on the 30th. They were not at all set on. There is the 

 strongest likeness in all the three sets we have now seen, and there- 

 fore I conclude that the Nutcracker's eggs do not vary much. The 

 same is the case respecting the construction of the nest after this 

 year's experience." The writer then proceeds to offer for my ac- 

 ceptance the four eggs of the first nest, a liberal present, the recol- 

 lection of which will always demand my warmest gratitude. Last 

 March (1806) one nest was found, which the birds deserted after 

 laying a single egg in it. 



I need not say with what satisfaction I announce the fulfilment of 



* Journ. fiir Orn. 1856, taf. i. fig. 1, and Eier der Europiiischen Viigel, taf. 1. 

 fis:. 14, and taf. Ixxvi. fig. 4.— A. N. 



