As regards Scotland, Macgillivray says that a specimen
then in the Museum of the University of Edinburgh was
said to have been shot in that kingdom, and that there
was another in the collection of Mr. Arhuthnot at Peterhead,
which last is alleged by the author of the Statistical
Account of that parish to have been killed there.* Neither
of these statements can be fully accepted, and the only occurrence
of the species in Scotland which is free from doubt
would seem to he that of an example sent to Mr. M‘Leay
of Inverness, having been shot, according to Mr. Gray, at
Invergarry in that county in October, 1868. The Nutcracker
cannot be announced with any certainty as having
been observed in Ireland. Templeton’s notes, quoted by
Thompson, mention one shot in Tipperary, hut the
naturalist last named put little faith in the statement,
and Mr. Watters does not even allude to it.
There is much likeness between the history of this
species and that of the Waxwing as before given (vol. i.
page 523). The Nutcracker had been for centuries a well-
known bird in Western Europe, appearing at irregular
intervals, mostly in autumn or winter, sometimes in large
bands or even flocks, as in 1754, 1768, 1793, 1805, 1814,
or not. The species has been many times noticed as seen in various parts of
England, and, though observers may in some cases have been mistaken, the
records deserve mention. The first of them relates to a bird watched for some
time through a telescope near Bridgewater in the autumn of 1805, by Mr. Anstice,
whom Montagu regarded as an accurate observer. The second bird was observed
in Netherwitton Wood, in the autumn of 1819, by Admiral Mitford, the
coadjutor of Selby, who records the incident. The third was seen on the banks
of Hooe Lake in the parish of Plymstoek by the late Mr. Thomas Bulteel, as
Mr. Rodd informed the Author. Newman (Letters of Rusticus, p. 159) notices
two seen in Surrey—one closely watched by Mr. R. Haines in Peperharow Park,
the other by Mr. W. Kidd near Guildford. Mr. Rowe _(B. Devon, p. 28) is
pretty sure he saw one near Saltram in October, 1862, and Mr. T. C. Melville
says (Zool. s. s. p. 3689) he saw one near North Petherton in Somerset, August
4th, 1873 ; while the late Lord Tweeddale told the Editor of one supposed to
have been seen at Yester in East Lothian in December, 1876.
* Mr. R. Gray, who in 1869 examined this collection in the Peterhead
Museum, could find no trace of the specimen. The statement, like many others
touching Zoology in the same compilation, very possibly originated in a mistake.
Macgillivray is frequently said to have asserted that the specimen he described
was also killed in Scotland, whereas he did nothing of the kind.
1821, 1822, 1836, 1844, 1847 and 1868—the year 1844
being especially remarkable in this respect; but little or
nothing had been ascertained in regard to its breeding-
habits or its home, for nearly all of those that came into
the hands of Ornithologists were evidently stragglers, and
were perhaps wanderers from afar. Great curiosity was
therefore felt for the discovery of its true haunts and
habits, and even now, as will immediately appear, that
curiosity cannot said to be satisfied, though a laborious
monograph * of the species, recently published, clears up
much that had been hitherto obscure, by compendiously
bringing together nearly all the information that could be
obtained on the subject, and has been freely laid under
contribution in the following pages.
During the breeding-season the Nutcracker undoubtedly
prefers retired forests in which conifers prevail, if they do
not grow alone, and as in Central and Southern Europe
such forests only exist in mountainous districts, the belief
arose that mountainous districts were needed to afford the
species a fitting abode. But this is not wholly true, and
it will be found as much at home in the woods of Southern
Scandinavia—in Dalsland and Bornholm, where there are
no hills of great height—as in those which clothe the
rugged sides of the Alps or other notable ranges. But the
particular spots which it chooses for the business of propagation
are of comparatively small extent, though they occur
discontinuously over a great part of Europe, and we may
hence conclude that, notwithstanding the success of recent
researches, there is yet much more to be learnt of the Nutcracker’s
economy. The older accounts of its mode of
nidification have proved to be mere suppositions and very
wide of the mark. Among them, however, there is only
* ‘ Der Tannenheher (Nucifraga carvocatactes.) Ein monographischer Versuch
von Victor Ritter von Tschusi-Schmidhofen.’ 4to, Dresden [1874]. Herr Vogel’s
able paper, “ Die Fortpflanzung des Tannenhahers in Jura Solothurns” in the
‘Bericht’ of the Natural History Society of St. Gall for 1871-72 (p. 156)
contains much of interest. The excellent account of this species in Mr. Dresser s
‘Birds of Europe’ includes copious extracts from both these works as well as
others of hardly less importance.