NUTCRACKER

This article appears in Volume V19, Page 919 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: NUM-ORC

NUTCRACKER , the name given by G. Edwards in 1758 (Gleanings, No. 240) to a bird which had hitherto borne no English appellation, though described in 1544 by

Turner

, who,

meeting

MEETING (from " to meet," to come together, assemble, 0. Eng. metals ; cf. Du. moeten, Swed. mota, Goth. gamotjan, &c., derivatives of the Teut. word for a meeting, seen in O. Eng. Wit, moot, an assembly of the people; cf. witanagemot)

with it in the Rhaetic Alps, where it was called " Nousbrecher " (hodie " Nussbrecher "), translated that

term

TERM

into
Latin as Nucifraga. In 1555 C. Gesner figured it and conferred upon it another designation, Caryocatactes. It is the Corvus caryocatactes of Linnaeus and the Nucifraga caryocatactes of modern ornithology. F.

Willughby

WILLUGHBY, FRANCIS (1635—1672)

and J. Ray obtained it on the road from Vienna to Venice as they crossed what must have been the Sommerring Pass, 26th September 1663. The first known to have occurred in Britain was, according to T. Pennant, shot at Mostyn in Flintshire, 5th October 1753, and about fifteen more examples have since been procured, and others seen, in the

island

ISLAND (O.E. ieg =isle, +land')

. Contrary to what was for many years believed, the nest of the Nutcracker seems to be invariably built on the bough of a tree, some 20 ft. from the ground, and is a comparatively large structure of sticks, lined with grass. The eggs are of a very

pale

PALE (through Fr. pal, from Lat. palms, a stake, for paglus, from the
stem
- STEM (O. Eng. staefn, stemn, cf. Du. stain, Ger. Stamm, &c., probably related to " staff ")
pag- of pangere, to fix; "
pole
" is from the same original source)

bluish-green, sometimes nearly spotless, but usually more or less freckled with

pale

PALE (through Fr. pal, from Lat. palms, a stake, for paglus, from the
stem
- STEM (O. Eng. staefn, stemn, cf. Du. stain, Ger. Stamm, &c., probably related to " staff ")
pag- of pangere, to fix; "
pole
" is from the same original source)

olive or ash-colour. The

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

food of the Nutcracker appears to be the seeds of various conifers, which it extracts as it holds the cones in its foot, and it has been questioned whether the bird has the faculty of cracking nutsproperly so calledwith its 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 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 family (see also

CROW

CROW (Dutch, kraal, Ger. Krdhe, Fr. corbeau, Lat. corvus)

). (A. N.)

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