628 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XIV. 



he sbot it with a pellet-bow aboiit a mile and-a-half from here. I was just 

 starting for Calcutta so had not time to identify it. I took it with me to the 

 Museum, and Mr. Finn and I looked it up in the " British Museum Catalogue " 

 the " Fauna of British India", and identified it as Sterna fuliginosa. 



This species has only occasionally been found on Indian coasts and is an 

 ocean bird so it is rather surprising its being found so far inland, but as a 

 tropic bird was once got in Cachar, one cannot be surprised at anything ! I 

 fancy it must have found its way up the Ganges and been blown from there to 

 here. 



CHAS. M. INGLIS. 



Baghownie Factoey, Tiehut, 

 2Srd August 1902. 



No. XXXV.— NOTES ON TEE HIMALAYAN NUTCRACKER 



{NUCIFRAGA EEMISPILA). 



In sending for the Society's collection a stuffed specimen of the Himalayan 

 Nutcracker {Nucifraga hemispila) I wish to offer a few remarks regarding the 

 habitat of this bird, in the pine forests of the Himalayas, and on a few other 

 points which may be of interest. 



I have never seen the Nutcrackers in the lower Himalayan valleys, I meati 

 those at about five to six thousand feet elevation. The bird seems to prefer 

 the higher forests on mountains at about eight to nine thousand feet. 



The Nutcracker remains secluded during the day, but in the mornings 

 and afternoons it may be seen moving about among the pine trees. In the 

 mornings it is especially lively and its harsh grating call is frequently heard. 

 Its food appears to be the seeds which it extracts from certain pine cones, 

 and below the pine trees on which it feeds, its presence, in the branches above, 

 can often be detected by the fallen debris of the pine cones which it pulls 

 to pieces. 



When the wild walnuts are in season, they form the principal food of the 

 Nutcrackers and when one considers that the shell of the Himalayan wild wal- 

 nut is exceedingly dense, thick, and hard, it is remarkable how easily the 

 bird perforates it with its powerful bill, first on one side, and then on the 

 other. This woi'k it executes in the most perfect and systematic manner. 

 All the nuts are perforated in exactly the same way, through the centre of 

 each shell, the holes thus made being rather larger than a six-pence. 



I think the Nutcracker also lives on grubs, the larvae of beetles and boring 

 insects, as I have sometimes seen it on decaying logs and the rotting stumps 

 of pine trees. 



On dissecting one of these birds I found the cervical vertebrae and the 

 muscles of the neck to be strongly developed. I expected to find the skull 

 composed of thick dense ivory like bone similar to those of the woodpeckers, 

 but it possessed none of the characteristics, though it is strongly built. I know 



