460 



10 



bird, and, instead of frequenting the green woods of the plains, it inhabits the dreary pine- and 

 cedar-woods in the more elevated mountain districts. It moves about with great ease and 

 facility amongst the trees, and hops lightly from branch to branch in search of food, often 

 plucking the hazel-nuts from the slender outer twigs (which will not bear its weight) whilst 

 fluttering in the air. When it has selected a conifer-cone it holds it firm with its foot and works 

 out the seeds with its powerful bill, and in like manner holds hazel-nuts fast and breaks the 

 shell with blows of its beak, in order to extract the kernel. It feeds on the seeds of various 

 kinds of conifers, hazel-nuts, beech-nuts, acorns, berries, insects and snails, and small vertebrates. 

 The stomach of one I possess, sent to me by Mr. Collett, contained rowan-berries and kernels 

 and small pieces of hazel-nut shells ; and that of another, also obtained by Mr. Collett, contained 

 small fragments of hazel-nuts and acorns and numerous shells of various Helices. Specimens 

 obtained by the Bitter von Tschusi Schmidhofen in September had been feeding on Geotrupes 

 vernalis, Prionus, sp. 1, and Carabus, sp. 1 ; and the stomachs of others contained specimens of 

 Vespa germanica and Vespa rufa, which had been swallowed with their stings. Mr. Jackel, who 

 examined the stomachs of many shot in 1844, found them containing almost solely insects such 

 as Helops ater, Hylurgus piniperda, Forjicula auricularia, Carabidce, Curculionidce, Locustella 

 viridissima ; and one contained about twenty-five caterpillars of a species of Noctua. Petenyi 

 found in the stomachs of specimens shot by him various species of Poecilus, Harpalus, Ancho- 

 menus, Dytiscus, Colymbetes, and Hydrophilus. It is said to take young birds out of the nest, 

 and birds out of snares, and devour them ; and Naumann records that one tried to get a call-bird 

 out of its cage, and only left it when it was approached so near as nearly to be taken with the 

 hand. 



Its flight is heavy, and seldom protracted ; and, according to Von Tschusi Schmidhofen, its 

 call-note is a harsh prolonged krah, krah, krah, or kruh, kruh — whilst uttering which it jerks the 

 wings and tail. This call is uttered frequently, and may be heard at a great distance. When 

 frightened it utters a harsh note, like dscherr, dscherr, somewhat resembling the call-note of the 

 Missel-Thrush. 



For long the nidification of the Nutcracker remained, like that of the Waxwing, enveloped 

 in utter obscurity ; and even now the eggs are a rarity in most collections. The first naturalist 

 who appears to have obtained undoubtedly authentic eggs was the Abbe Caire, who procured 

 several nests near Sanieres, in the Basses-Alpes, in 1846. Petenyi obtained a nest with four eggs 

 near Altsohl, in Hungary, about 1850. In 1858 the Imperial Forester Grill found a nest con- 

 taining young birds in the Langbaththal, in Upper Austria ; and, according to Hintz (J. f. O. 

 1861, p. 496), a nest was found in the Butower district in 1860. Mr. Schutt (J. f. O. 1862, 

 p. 125) found a nest, on the 19th March, 1862, at Waldkirchen, in Baden; and in the same year, 

 in May, Messrs. Theobald and Fischer found the first nests on the island of Bornholm, but they 

 were empty. In 1863, in April, they found a nest with three naked young, and in 1864, on the 

 23rd March, they took the first eggs. In 1864 Dr. Baldamus obtained from the forester Franz, 

 at Schlanders, in the Tyrol, two nests with eggs on the 26th March, and on the 6th and 8th 

 April three others, also containing eggs. On the 23rd March, 1867, a nest with four eggs was 

 obtained at Bruck a. Mur, in Styria, and sent by Seidensacher to Lord Lilford. After Seiden- 

 sacher's death three nests, each containing four eggs, were taken near Hochschwab early in 



