The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma/Birds/Order Passeres/Family Corvidæ/Genus Nucifraga

by Edward Charles Stuart Baker

 

Genus NUCIFRAGA Briss., 1760.

The genus Nucifraga contains the Nutcrackers, birds of well- marked form and colour, two of which are found within Indian limits, inhabiting the higher part of the Himalayas where they are resident.

In the Nutcrackers the plumage is more or less spotted with white; the bill is straight, pointed and about as long as the head; the nasal bristles are short and stiff and completely cover the nostrils; but the tail is short and very little rounded.

 

Key to Species.

A. Rump and upper tail-coverts not marked with white	N. caryocatactes hemispila, p. 66.
B. Rump and upper tail-coverts marked with white	N. multipunctata, p. 67.

(46) Nucifraga caryocatactes hemispila.

The Himalayan Nutcracker.

Nucifraga hemispila Vigors, P. Z. S., 1830, p. 8 (Himalayas); Blanf. & Oates, i, p. 41.

Vernacular names. Lho-kariyo-pho (Lepcha).

Description. Narial bristles black and white; forehead, crown, nape, hind neck and upper tail-coverts chocolate-brown; with these exceptions the whole of the plumage is umber-brown, the sides of the head and neck streaked with white; chin and throat with a few small white shaft-streaks; the back, breast and upper abdomen with oval white drops; under tail-coverts pure white; wings glossy black, the lesser and median coverts with triangular white tips; a few of the inner primaries with a large oval white mark on the inner webs, probably disappearing with age, as it is absent in some birds; central tail-feathers black, the others broadly tipped white, the amount of white increasing outwardly.

Some birds have the breast-spots pale rufescent instead of white, a feature which seems to have nothing to do with age.

Colours of soft parts. Legs and feet black; iris reddish brown to hazel or deep brown; bill brown with paler tips.

Measurements. Total length about 370 mm.; tail about 150 to 160 mm.; wing 205 to 225 mm., averaging about 210 or rather more; bill 40 to 45 mm.; tarsus about 40 mm.

The young are pale brown, with rufescent drops everywhere instead of white. These, however, turn white at the first moult, when the head also acquires the white colour.

This bird is merely a local race of the European Nutcracker, from which it differs in having a far darker head, the centre of the throat and neck unspotted with white and the outer tail-feathers almost entirely white instead of merely tipped with white.

Distribution. The Himalayas from the extreme N.W., Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan into Tibet. Its distribution still requires a considerable amount of consideration as it seems to overlap in many places with the next.

Nidification. Hume took its nest with young in May near Simla, 6,500 feet, and Mr. A. E. Jones found a nest with young and one addled egg in April in the same district, whilst Whymper took nest and eggs in Garhwal 16.5.06 at 10,500 feet. The nests are described as being like neat Crows' nests but with a thick lining of fir-needles and grass. Two clutches of eggs were obtained for me in Tibet on 30.4.20, both of which were second layings after the first had been destroyed. The two clutches contained three and four eggs, but all were unfortunately broken except one. This, and the eggs taken by Messrs. Jones and Whymper are similar in character to those of the European bird, except that they are duller pale sea-green in colour and have much larger blotches of olive-sienna and neutral tint.

My egg measures 35⋅0 x 26⋅0 mm.

Habits. This bird keeps much to forests of pine, cedar and fir between 3,000 and 12,000 feet, and subsists largely on the seeds of these trees; but they also eat other seeds and fruits as well as insects. Though not regularly gregarious, they are said sometimes to collect in small parties. Their notes are harsh and loud.

16.—Head of N. multipunctata.

(47) Nucifraga multipunctata.

The Larger-spotted Nutcracker.

Nucifraga multipunctata Gould, P.Z.S., 1849, p. 23 (N.W. Himalayas); Blanf. & Oates, i, p. 41.

Vernacular names. Khak-kharra (Pushtu); Tong-she-sha-ga (Tibetan).

Description. Differs from the Himalayan Nutcracker in being darker, a chocolate rather than an umber-brown, and in being much more profusely marked with white. The lores and narial bristles are white or black and white; the rump and upper tail-coverts have a white spot on each feather; the wing-coverts and quills are more profusely spotted with white, and the white on the lower phiniage is so extensive as to sometimes make this look almost wholly white.

Colours of soft parts. Iris red-brown; bill horny brown; legs and feet black.

Measurements. Length about 350 mm,; wing 190 to 210 mm., average about 200 or rather less; tail 160 to 170 mm.; tarsus about 40 mm.; bill about 50 mm. and decidedly more slender than in hemispila and its subspecies.

Distribution. N.W. Himalayas from Afghanistan, Gilgit, Kashmir, Ladakh to S.E. Tibet, whence I have had specimens sent me. Chambi Valley in Tibet and Sikkim.

Nidification. Eggs sent me by Mr. D. Macdonald with the parent birds from the Chambi Valley are exactly like those of the European Nutcracker, very pale blue-green speckled with dark brown sparsely everywhere and a little more numerous at the larger end. They measure about 33·6 × 24·6 mm.

The nests were said to be neat facsimiles of those of the Indian House-Crow, but neater and with a lining of pine-needles.

Habits. These differ in no way from those of the last bird. Osmaston says that it feeds principally on the seeds of the Blue Pine (Pinus excelsa) and of the Spruce (Picea morinda).