3 l 9 



OCCURRENCE OF 

 THE NUTCRACKER IN LINCOLNSHIRE. 



F. M. BURTON, F.L.S., F.G.S., 



Highjield, Grti?isborough, Lincolnshire. 



On the 14th of August last I had the good fortune to come 

 across the Nutcracker {Nucifraga caryocatactes) in a wood, prin- 

 cipally of pine, on the south-west side of Scotton Common. 



I was first attracted by its very loud and raucous notes, 

 totally unfamiliar to me, resembling- more the noise one hears in 

 the parrot-house at the ' Zoo.' than any English bird. Seebohm 

 describes these notes as of two distinct kinds, 'one probably the 

 call note, a sort of Kray, Kray, the other louder and more 

 energetic, the alarm note, a Kr, Kr, Kr, almost as grating to 

 the ear as the note of a Corncrake.' This to my mind conveys 

 but a feeble description of the sound ; for though, in this case, 

 the cry may have been intensified by the hollow silence of the 

 pine wood, the notes of the noisiest English bird— Corncrake or 

 Jay — are ' mellow music matched' with the sounds I heard. 



Butler, in Vol. 2 of 'British Birds,' gives a more correct 

 account of the cry, for, in quoting Mr. John Hancock, he says: 

 ' Its voice was very peculiar. It had an extremely harsh, loud 

 cry resembling the noise produced by a ripping saw while in 

 full action. This cry was so loud that it could be heard all over 

 the house.' 



'At the nesting-time,' Seebohm says, 'the bird is silent'; 

 and it is worth noting that on the 6th of June last, in the same 

 wood, a bird larger than a Jay, which I could not identify, flew 

 from the top of a pine over my head into an adjoining- tree, 

 without uttering a sound. All I could make out while it was 

 in sight, was that its colour appeared light brown, and its flight 

 was an undulating curve, and this accords with the accounts 

 given of the Nutcracker's flight ; for Seebohm describes it as 

 'peculiar, slow, undulating, and jay-like'; and Morris gives it 

 as 1 wavering and unsteady, avoiding crossing any open space' 

 etc. 



One corner of the wood at Scotton Common consists of 

 a thick plantation of young larch trees from which the sounds 

 came, and, on my going cautiously up to it, three birds, about 

 the size of doves, flew out without uttering a sound ; hut, 

 immediately, close to me, the cries I had heard before broke 

 from apparently more than one quarter. 



1900 October i. 



