412 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[March 12, 1910. 
Clark’s Nutcracker. 
Spokane, Wash., March 1.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: My first acquaintance with this wild 
and watchful bird was during a timber cruise 
in Payette River region of Idaho, in the wilds 
of the Sawtooth Mountains and the hills lead¬ 
ing up to them. At an altitude of from 3,000 
to 5,000 feet, in the month of August a few 
families were seen flying from tree to tree along 
the crests of the rocky ridges. These were the 
old birds with their broods of fully fledged 
young. It was difficult to come within gunshot 
of them. 
This past season while cruising in the rugged 
hills forming the watershed between the Colville 
River and Clark Fork of the Pend d’Oreille 
River in Northeastern Washington, well up 
where rock-girt foothills buttress the great 
mountains, where surging streams hasten 
through dark canons, where firs and tamaracks 
toss their cone crests toward the sky and the 
lonely nuthatch, the brown creeper and chick¬ 
adee live their forest life; where wild winds 
moan in the scattered pines of the park-like 
stretches of the higher steeps—there I found the 
nutcracker at its summer home. Small colonies 
were met with from early March until the full- 
fledged young scattered from the nests. 
The nutcracker is a strong, well built bird 
with much of the haughty bearing of the Ameri¬ 
can crow and with habits which resemble those 
both of the woodpeckers and the jays. Alert, 
noisy and tireless, they pry into every nook of 
the woods, and nothing seems to escape their 
keen quest. It is about the size of the flicker, 
but more compact and agile. 
You will not have gone far into their retreats 
before hearing the harsh call, or squall, which 
is uttered at the approach of any unusual object, 
for this bird has a keener eye than any denizen 
of the forest and gives warning to bird and 
beast alike. 
The flight is varied to suit the eccentricity of 
the bird. When in pursuit of another of its 
kind, the motion is strong and exceedingly swift 
and prolonged as they dart in and out among 
trees and hills. Few birds excel them in rapid 
evolutions. I once saw three of them fighting 
far up on a steep mountain side. They were 
too much engaged with their quarrel to notice 
my presence, but when they did see me they 
darted down the mountain with exceeding swift¬ 
ness. Their crying notes and evident fright 
were amusing. 
On warm, sunny days they may be seen at the 
top of some old snag leisurely preening their 
feathers for h'ours at a time, apparently obliv¬ 
ious to everything. Occasionally one will make 
a desultory flight for some distance out from 
the tree and then leisurely return to its perch. 
In this they resemble some woodpeckers, as they 
do when clinging to the cones to pick out pine 
nuts, the chief part of their food supply. Of 
these they eat great quantities, becoming very 
fat. Another flight is quite unlike that first de¬ 
scribed. They act as if taking a stroll, as it 
were, well up over the forest trees in an easy 
listless manner, with wings spread, and often 
the white tail also spread like a fan. Thus with 
easy flapping they proceed for a long time. 
At times they congregate in a tree and chase 
each other about in a playful fashion, much as 
a troop of bluejays do in the autumn before 
migrating. Then again one will spread the wings 
and drop down from some high place and sail 
out for a long distance before alighting. But 
the ordinary flight is strong and well sustained. 
One day when passing among some rough hills 
I heard a, great outcry in a canon and stealthily 
crept near to learn the cause, and there, perched 
high up in a tamarack tree, was a Kennicott’s 
owl, so startled by the squawking band of nut¬ 
crackers and black-headed jays that it dared not 
fly, and yet could not safely sit still under their 
united onslaught. They had the poor bird sur¬ 
rounded and darted fiercely at it, screaming 
frantically, for the owl was near a nest of 
young birds. Finally the owl took courage to 
fly further up the canon, only to be pursued by 
the entire noisy mob. Their raucous screaming 
is enough to frighten away most intruders. 
While the nutcracker will eat a varied list of 
foods, such as grain and tender green grasses 
and weeds and lichens, picking the latter from 
o d dead trees, the principal article upon which 
they seem to subsist is the nut of the yellow 
pine (Pinus ponderosa). They fly to the outer 
end of a pine branch and cling to the cones as 
a chickadee does, hanging from the underside, 
while extracting the nuts which they swallow 
whole. Evidently this rich fare gives them the 
great energy and strength they display. 
Of a roving disposition, they go from place to 
place as their eccentric nature directs. During 
the season of 1908 they were abundant in a cer¬ 
tain locality, where this season but one pair re¬ 
mained, although the food supply was normal. 
The notes of the nutcracker are mostly harsh 
and of great carrying power; that oftenest heard 
being uttered when the bird is disturbed or when 
any unusual object is seen. This cry can be 
heard for long distances, a sort of a dry, grat¬ 
ing sound so loud it almost startles one. Usually 
the note is heard from the top of some tall dead 
tree, a favorite watching place. Then there are 
numerous gurgling, guttural sounds while feed¬ 
ing or working at the nest building. There is 
a peculiar mellow round note resembling certain 
calls of the common bluejay when they gather 
in flocks in the groves preparatory to the fall 
migration; in fact, there are chatterings and 
side calls reminding one of the sociable habits 
of the jay. Some of the cries of the nutcracker 
cannot with certainty be distinguished from those 
of the black-headed jay. One call is closely like 
the noise produced by drawing the cross-cut saw 
through a pine log. 
In early March when warm winds have melted 
most of the snow from the southern mountain 
slopes, you may see a large flock gathering in 
the tops of the stunted pine trees of the hill 
regions, and for energy and persistent scoldings 
and flying to and from and hopping from branch 
to branch, they are hard to beat. These gather¬ 
ings are usually of a friendly nature and are 
the beginning of the nesting season. In this 
region most of the nests are built well up in 
firs and tamaracks in deep canons where thick 
growths of branches and bunches of moss and 
rubbish conceal them perfectly. If one does not 
happen to see them building, it is almost impos¬ 
sible to find the nest, for the birds are silent 
while incubation proceeds and do nothing to 
attract attention. 
On the third day of April I chanced upon a 
rather open tract of hill country where there 
" ere a number of the birds feeding among the 
pines. Concealing myself, a bird soon came to 
a large rock near me where it picked up and 
ate a quantity of grit. Soon another tame and 
drove it away and took the place. Then came 
two more and soon began to break off twigs 
from a small dead tamarack. One carried its 
burden to the top of a twenty-five-foot stump 
and deposited it there. The other flew across 
a knoll and placed the twigs in a small fir sap¬ 
ling and continued at this work for more than 
an hour. I knew there was to be a nest there, 
and only about five feet from the ground. 
On the 15th I returned to find the nest com¬ 
pleted and holding a single egg. No bird was 
about. The 21st, when I came for the' nest, the 
bird was sitting on three fine eggs. The nest 
is a heavy, shapely, well-built structure, very like 
the nest of the common crow. Externally it is 
of tamarack twigs which the bird breaks off 
from the branches. Most of them are about 
twelve inches long and some of them three- 
eights of an inch thick. To break them ^hows 
that the bird possesses great strength. They 
are interspersed with long bleached leaves of 
thistle. Into this structure is well sunk the inner 
nest of soft fine shreds and strips of bark of 
the buck brush, having much the texture and 
color of the bark of the wild grape vine which 
-the common crow uses. Then there is an abund¬ 
ance of soft pine grass well felted. This sub¬ 
stance is used all through the nest walls, but 
most thick and warm for the lining. At the rim 
is a quantity of usnea or long black moss from 
the tamarack. Thus we have a fine nest, sym¬ 
metrical and warm, suited to the early time of 
nesting. This nest was five feet and six inches 
from the ground, built close up against the 
trunk of the fir bush, which was three and a 
half inches in diameter at the point where the 
small branches sprung out as a platform to build 
upon. The outside diameter is 12 inches; the 
inside, 4 Ya, inches; outside depth of nest, 4 
inches; inside depth, 2k* inches; thickness of 
nest wall, 3 inches. The cup of the nest is much 
the shape of half of a cocoanut. 
The male bird came near the place, making 
but little protest. The mother bird remained 
on the eggs until I lifted her from them, and 
then she came back and huddled them with my 
hand within two feet of her. The only move 
of displeasure she made was to open very wide 
her mandibles and hold them so. The eggs are 
of a light greenish-white color and are some¬ 
what elongated. The markings' are fine specks 
and dots of dark brown and black, heavier and 
larger at the larger end. They resemble the 
lighter colored eggs of the common crow, being 
about two-thirds their size. The dimensions of 
this set are: 1.27 x .99 of an inch, 1.33 x .97 of 
an inch and 1.28 x .92 of an inch. 
Eggs of this species are rare in collections, 
being exceedingly difficult to find on account 
of the character of country chosen, the time of 
year they build and the peculiar cunning of this 
wizard of the hills. j. \y. Preston. 
Guns, revolvers and cartridges have a good 
sale in the Transvaal, South Africa. In 1908 the 
total imports into the Transvaal of hardware 
and cutlery from the United States amounted to 
$248,000, inclusive of firearms and ammunition. 
Consul Gonsaulus, of Johannesburg, points out 
the fact that our exporters are often slow in 
filling and dispatching orders for South Africa. 
