COMMON NUTCRACKER. 
251 
Common Nutcracker, Nucifraga carto- 
catactes, Briss. — Corpus caryocatactes, Linn. 
— Caryocatactes , Will. — Nutcracker, Nutcracking 
Crow of British authors. — As a British bird, very 
few instances are on record of the Nutcracker 
having been seen or captured. The following 
may be mentioned : two noted by Montague, — 
one killed in North Devon, the other in Corn- 
wall ; and, in addition, Mr Selby states that the 
bird was once seen in Northumberland in Nether- 
witton Wood. Of its habits we desiderate much 
a correct account from observation ; so far as the 
works of authors describe the bird, we know it to 
be gregarious, that it frequents wooded alpine 
regions, feeding partially on the kernels of hard 
seeds, and on insects ; breeding in the holes of 
decayed trees, and occasionally ascending their 
trunks in a climbing manner. 
This is the account Temminck gives us. Mr 
Selby, in a note, has stated, on the authority of 
his brother, who met with a large flock in a forest 
in Switzerland, composed of pinasters and stone 
pines, that they were busily engaged feeding on 
the seeds contained in the cones.* The locality 
of the Himalaya bird in general confirms these 
accounts. 
Crown of the head and nape blackish brown ; 
the quills black, with a narrow tip of white on 
some of the last, feathers of the bend of the wing 
and on the shoulders tipped with white ; the tail 
* Vol. i. p. 68. 
