449 



Genus NUCIFKAGA. 



Nucifraga, Brisson, Orn. ii. p. 58 (1760). 

 Corvus apud Linnseus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 157 (1766). 

 Caryocatactes apud Koch, Baier. Zool. i. p. 93 (1816). 



The Nutcrackers are essentially Palsearctic birds, being found only in the Palsearctic Region, 

 ranging south into the Himalayas, with the exception of one species, Nucifraga columbiana, 

 which inhabits the Nearctic Region, and which has very generally been separated generically 

 from Nucifraga under the name of Picicorvus columbianus ; but Mr. Sharpe considers that there 

 is no generic distinction between it and our Palsearctic Nutcrackers. Only one species inhabits 

 the Western Palsearctic Region, its range being given in the following article. In habits the 

 Nutcrackers resemble the Jays ; but they frequent conifer-woods in the more elevated mountain 

 districts, and feed chiefly on the seeds of conifers, eating also nuts, fruit, and insects. Their 

 flight is heavy and Jay-like, and their note a harsh prolonged screech. They breed very early in 

 the season, when the snow is still on the mountains, and construct a heavy cup-shaped nest of 

 sticks lined with grass and moss, which they place on a conifer tree in the mountains, and 

 deposit pale greenish-white eggs marked with pale liver-coloured dots. 



Nucifraga caryocatactes, the type of the genus, has the bill rather long, smooth-surfaced, 

 stout, straight, tapering to a point, gape-line straight ; nostrils basal, covered by bristly feathers 

 directed forwards ; wings moderately long, broad, the first quill shorter than the secondaries, the 

 second shorter than the sixth, the fourth longest ; tail moderately long, broad, rather rounded ; 

 legs and feet stout, the tarsus covered in front with six large and three inferior scutellse ; claws 

 stout, curved, acute. 



75 



