Mar., 1916 
THE NUTCRACKERS OF YELLOWSTONE PARK 
63 
is an erratic wanderer at best, this number is greatly exceeded at times. No 
doubt it is the large supply of pinyon cones together with kitchen scraps that 
draws them here. 
Nutcrackers will eat anything. They forage about the stables for grain, 
come to the kitchen doors for scraps, especially pieces of meat and bones; in 
the mountain wilds they pick out the seeds of pine cones, eat cedar berries, 
and devour large numbers of insects. They have even been seen to catch their 
prey on the wing, making very flycatcher-like sallies from the tip of a tall 
pine. Sometimes they walk over the ground like crows, searching for ants 
and ground insects. But the nutcracker really seems to prefer pine seeds, 
especially those from the pinyon pine. Sometimes they will tear the cone to 
pieces even while the cone is still fast to the branch, often perched at the very 
tip of a bending branch, or even underneath, clinging in a manner creditable to 
a chickadee or a nuthatch. More often the cone is detached and carried away 
to a strong limb where it is held by one foot while the bird strikes strong, 
downward blows at it with its pickax-like bill. At times the bird will secure a 
seed at every second stroke and at the same time tear the cone to shreds. Being 
bold, independent free-lances these birds will vary their methods by robbing 
a pine squirrel of his cone ; even going so far as to knock the squirrel from his 
limb with one blow from their bills at the end of a long, swift swoop. The 
pine squirrel knows this, too ; and it is delicious to see the squirrel, whose own 
abilities as a robber are not small, glide into some protection and hurl vituper- 
ation at his enemies. Nor are the nutcrackers at all backward at “sassing” 
back. Many a time the somber, evergreen forests are enlivened by such a 
squawking match, joined in by all the squirrels and nutcrackers in hearing. 
The nutcrackers do not restrict themselves to the troubles of their own spe- 
cies. On one occasion two Mountain Blue-birds had a “little difference” near 
the writer ; and while they were hard at it, the nutcrackers commenced to col- 
lect until there were four about, each trying to mix in. One nutcracker became 
so excited that in rising from the ground he struck a nearby wire gate and 
knocked out several feathers and partially stunned himself. Nor is their pug- 
nacity confined to small birds. Let a hawk appear and he is mobbed by all 
the nutcrackers in sight, as well as by all within hearing of the squawking 
birds. They usually attack a hawk from above, striking it between the shoul- 
ders ; the hawk tries to escape by circling up until he leads his tormentors so 
high that they are forced to raise the siege and return to terra firma. Occa- 
sionally the hawk will escape by diving into a thick tree-top where he can turn 
and drive off the little terrors. Western Red-tail Hawks are often attacked by 
the nutcracker ; but at times he will find a Swainson Hawk, a very inoffensive 
hawk in the Yellowstone, and usually the nutcracker contents himself with 
only a peck or two at him. 
Nutcrackers combine in themselves the peculiar habits of woodpeckers, 
crows, and jays. Almost every time one sees these birds he finds them doing 
something either new in itself or done in a new way. They will hammer on a 
limb and even jab their bills into crevices in the bark after insects in true 
woodpecker fashion. During the breeding season the nutcrackers are exceed- 
ingly quiet; that is, quiet for nutcrackers, but at all other times they are as 
vociferous, and as big scolds, as the blue jays of the East. They are wild, rest- 
less, and noisy ; and they have a whole series of cries and squawks, most of 
them shrill and strident; their favorite is a rattling “ kar-r-r-r-ack , 
kar-r-r-r-ack”. At times they seem to become confidential and then they sput- 
