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NUTCRACKER

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Originally appearing in Volume V19, Page 919 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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NUTCRACKER , the name given by G. See also:

Edwards in 1758 (Gleanings, No. 240) to a See also:bird which had hitherto See also:borne no See also:English appellation, though described in 1544 by See also:Turner, who, See also:meeting with it in the See also:Rhaetic See also:Alps, where it was called " Nousbrecher " (hodie " Nussbrecher "), translated that See also:term into Latin as Nucifraga. In 1555 C. See also:Gesner figured it and conferred upon it another designation, Caryocatactes. It is the See also:Corvus caryocatactes of See also:Linnaeus and the Nucifraga caryocatactes of See also:modern See also:ornithology. F. See also:Willughby and J. See also:Ray obtained it on the road from See also:Vienna to See also:Venice as they crossed what must have been the Sommerring Pass, 26th See also:September 1663. The first known to have occurred in See also:Britain was, according to T. See also:Pennant, shot at Mostyn in Flintshire, 5th See also:October 1753, and about fifteen more examples have since been procured, and others seen, in the See also:island. Contrary to what was for many years believed, the See also:nest of the Nutcracker seems to be invariably built on the bough of a See also:tree, some 20 ft. from the ground, and is a comparatively large structure of sticks, lined with grass.

The eggs are of a very See also:

pale bluish-See also:green, sometimes nearly spotless, but usually more or less freckled with pale See also:olive or ash-See also:colour. The See also:chief See also:food of the Nutcracker appears to be the seeds of various conifers, which it extracts as it holds the cones in its See also:foot, and it has been questioned whether the bird has the See also:faculty of cracking nuts—properly so called—with its See also:bill, though that can be used with much force and, at least in confinement, with no little ingenuity. The old supposition that the Nutcrackers had any See also:affinity to the Woodpeckers (Picidae) or were intermediate in position between them and the Crows (Corvidae) is now known to be wholly erroneous, for they undoubtedly belong to the latter See also:family (see also See also:CROW). (A.

End of Article: NUTCRACKER

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