NUCIFRAGA CARYOCATACT ES

Nutcracker.

Corvus Caryocatactes, Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p- 159.

— Nucifraga, Nilss. Orn. Suec.. vol. 1. p. 90.

Nucifraga, Briss. Orn., tom. ii. p. 59, pl. 5. fig. 1.

———— gutiata, Vieill. Gal. des Ois., tom. i. p- 166, pl. 105.

———— brachyrhynchos et macrorhynchos, Brehm, Handb. N
Caryocatactes, Selby, Ill. Brit. Orn., vol. i. p. 368.

Caryocatactes nucifraga, Flem. Brit. Anim., p. 88.

aturg. Vog. Deutschl., pp. 181, 182.

 

Wiru the Nutcracker must ever be associated recollections of Alpine scenery, forests of pine, cols, and
passes, the Alpine Club and its spirited climbers, the Bouquetin, the Chamois, and the Lammergeyer; for
the bird is often seen by the British tourist among the Alps. There it dwells in the forests of pine, which
clothe the sides of the mountains as high as those trees can grow. If my readers wish to see the bird in
its native haunts, let them look around when crossing the romantic Téte noire, the Grimsel, or while visiting
the beautiful scenery of Zermatt. Wherever the Pinus cembra grows, the Nutcracker will certainly be
perceived, just as we see the Jay in the oak-woods of Kent, and the Magpie in the valley of the Trent ; and
it may be approached sufficiently near to admit a close observation of its sprightly and singular actions—
actions which always remind me of those of the Great Tit, with a little of those of the Jay. At one moment
it may be seen climbing head downwards, and hammering away at acone to obtain the seed within; at
another, with its breast and tail well up, and its head thrown back—the position in which I have figured it.
If disturbed by the traveller pointing his alpenstock towards it, it merely flies a few yards further off, or
crosses the roaring torrent to the opposite side of the hill. Alpine Switzerland, however, is not the only
place the bird inhabits ; for it is found much further south and a long way toward the north. It not only
visits the dark, gloomy forests of Germany, Scandinavia, and Russia, but also breeds there. It will be
conceived, then, that if the kind of country I have described be essential to its existence and well-being, the
British Islands can offer it but little temptation ; still in its journeyings to and fro, like a mariner who has
unshipped his compass and lost his way, individuals do occasionally get driven out of their course and come
among us; and that such accidental visits are not unfrequent is certain, for I shall be within the mark when
I say that there are at least fifty recorded instances of examples having been shot within the precincts of our
islands. Sir John Crewe tells me that some years ago two were killed in Oakley Park, in Suffolk, the seat
of Sir Edward Kerrison, in whose possession they now are. Macgillivray states that a specimen in the
Museum of the University of Edinburgh was said to have been shot at Peterhead, and a third in Scotland;
one was killed in Pepper Harrow Park, the seat of Lord Middleton ; two or three more have been shot
in Devonshire, and others have been obtained in Northumberland, Somersetshire, &c.

From the earliest date at which ornithology became a study this bird has been an object of interest, and
to gain a knowledge of its nest and eggs a desideratum. On the subject of its nidification many pages have
been written; some have asserted that the bird deposits its eggs in the holes of trees, like a Woodpecker,
others that it builds a large nest among the branches ; some that its eggs are very similar to those of a Jay,
while others, again, describe them as nearly resembling those of a Magpie. It seems that none of these and
similar assertions are to be depended upon ; and the credit of ascertaining the truth of the mystery must be
shared, I believe, between some gentlemen at Copenhagen and Herr Schutt, of Waldkirch in Bavaria. This
last-named naturalist published, in the ‘Journal fur Ornithologie,’ an account of the nidification of the
Nutcracker, from the translation of which, given in the ‘Ibis’ for 1862, I quote the following extracts :—

Dr. E. Schiitt, after describing the difficulties of penetrating through the fir-plantations on the south-
eastern spur of the Kandel at an elevation of 3500 feet, states that he was about giving up the search, when
a Nutcracker flew out a few paces before him, without uttering any cry.
st on a tree, 35 feet high, hard by a sledge-path, but, to my

«This inspired new courage, and

in the course of another half-hour 1 found a ne

at a helo Pt 25 feet, and was very
i i i rors vas place ‘lose » stem, at a he ioht of about 25 feet, an as Ver)
disappointment, without eggs. It was placed close to the s : é

; arc 7 ¢ » W3r » fj “Ss ro re
difficult of detection from below. It was found on the 19th of March; and on the 23rd the first egg was

laid, and on each third day the two others.

boy, to my regret, took the nest and eggs away. :
re a mile away from it the cry could still be heard.
, of the same tree, intently watched its removal.

ter . bird had been three days without laying an egg, a
After the bird had bee \ yin
At the discovery of the nest, the bird was crying in the

li i wi At the taking of the nest it flew
distance ; and when we we

off as the boy climbed up, and then, settling on the
It is only to the Jay’s nest and eggs that those of the pre

summit
sent bird bear any resemblance. Outwardly the nest