144 BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 
of this species at a meeting of the Zoological Society of London: he had received 
them from Pastor Theobald, and J. C. H. Fisher, of Copenhagen, who had taken 
them in Bornholm. At that time they had failed to secure eggs of the species. 
At a meeting in January, 1867, Professor Newton exhibited a nest with four eggs, 
observing :—‘“‘In 1863, my friends were again disappointed of getting the eggs of 
this bird, which proved to be a still earlier breeder than they had given it credit 
for; and on the oth of April three young ones were found. In 1894 they deter- 
mined 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 the nest 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 in 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.” 
In 1865, owing to the severity of the preceding winter, these gentlemen did 
not receive a nest quite so early, their seekers only discovering one containing 
three eggs on the 1oth of April; but they secured a second, with four eggs, on 
the 30th of the same month: finally, in March 1866, a nest with one egg was 
found, but the birds deserted it without laying again. Seebohm observes that 
“the breeding-season of the Nutcracker in the Arctic regions is evidently June 
and July—at least ten weeks later than in Central Europe.” 
The situation of the nest is said to be always on a not very tall pine-tree, 
from eighteen to twenty-five feet from the ground, on a branch against the stem. 
It is about a foot in diameter, about five inches in depth, with the cavity four 
inches in diameter, and from one and a half to two inches in depth. The 
foundation is composed of lichen-covered twigs of larch and spruce, finished off 
with fresh birch-twigs, and lined with dry grass and the inner bark of trees, with 
a little loose earth; the final lining is grass, generally dry, but sometimes fresh.” 
The number of eggs is from three to five; they are bluish or creamy-white, with 
the surface spots olive or leather-brown, and with grey shell-spots: in the distri- 
bution of the markings and their size they vary much as in other Corvide. 
Although, in the winter, Seebohm says that “Their tameness was quite absurd. 
They allowed us to go within three feet of them; and sometimes they even 
permitted us to touch them with a stick,” this confidence disappears during the 
breeding-season when they become very shy and wary. 
