224 NUTCRACKER. 
uv 
while in birds from Manchuria, Corea, Japan and the Kuril Islands, 
the bill is moderate, though inclined to be thick. The Siberian 
form, with slender bill, is known to wander westward in autumn, at 
irregular intervals and sometimes in large numbers; and there is 
evidence that this is the chief visitor to Western Europe, including 
Great Britain. Some form of Nutcracker occurs in the Pyrenees 
and has been observed in Estremadura ; it has also been found in 
Sicily and Sardinia ; but not yet in Greece, Turkey, or the Caucasus. 
In’ Kashmir the representative is . mu/tipunctata, and in the 
Himalayas WV. hemispila. 
The Nutcracker often begins to breed early in March, when the 
- forests are still difficult of access owing to the snow; and although 
eggs were obtained in the French Alps by the late Abbé Caire as 
long ago as 1846, it was not until after 1862 that English ornitholo- 
gists became acquainted with some specimens taken on the island 
of Bornholm, followed by others from Germany, Switzerland, &c. 
The rather bulky nest, composed of twigs, with grass, roots, and a 
little moss and lichen for a lining, is placed from fifteen to thirty 
feet from the ground in a spruce fir, close to the stem. Sometimes 
the bird will sit upon only two eggs, but 3 are usual; they are pale 
bluish-green, spotted with ash-brown, like some light varieties of 
those of the Magpie: measurements 1°3 by ‘95 in. Seebohm was 
mistaken in supposing that the Nutcrackers on the Yenesei retired 
in June to breed; they disappeared because it was time to moult, 
and nearly all his specimens are immature birds. The seeds of 
fir-cones are a favourite food, especially those of the arolla pine 
(Pinus cembra); also hazel-nuts, of which the bird can carry a 
dozen in its dilatable pouch and cesophagus ; while scraps of meat 
and refuse are freely eaten. Its flight is dipping, but less laboured 
than that of the Jay. One of the notes is gurre, gurre, and another 
resembles the noise made by springing a rattle ; but before nesting 
begins the birds become silent and very wary. 
The adult male is umber-brown above and below, profusely 
spotted with drop-shaped white markings on the back and breast, 
and more sparingly on the throat ; quills glossy black ; tail-feathers 
greenish-black, with broad white tips to all except the central pair ; 
under tail-coverts white; bill and legs black. Length 12°5 in.; 
wing 7°3 in. The female generally shows a rather browner tint on 
the quills. The fledgling is covered with filamentous hair-brown 
feathers with white streaks down their centres ; but almost as soon as 
the quills are developed, the back and breast are covered with brown 
feathers spotted with white, as in the adult. 
