Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/723

Rh U T N U T 665 circumstances, doubtless, their valuable properties are due. Coquilla nuts, the large seeds of the palm, Attalea funifera, the piassaba of Brazil, are highly valued for turnery purposes. They have an elongated oval form, 3 to 4 inches in length, and being intensely hard they take a fine polish, displaying a richly-streaked brown colour. The Marking nut, Semecarpus Anacardium, is a fruit closely allied in its source and properties to the CASHEW NUT (q.v.}. The marking nut is a native of the East Indies, where the extremely acrid juice of the shell of the fruit in its unripe state is mixed with quicklime, and used as a marking-ink. The juice also possesses medicinal vir tues as an external application, and when dry it is the basis of a valuable caulking material and black varnish. The seeds are edible, and the source of a useful oil. Physic nuts are the produce of the euphorbiaceous tree, Curcas purr/ans, whence a valuable oil, having similar purgative properties to castor oil, is obtained. The plant is a native of South America ; but is now found through out all tropical countries. Pine nuts are the seeds of several species of Pinus, eaten in the countries of their growth, and also serving to some extent as sources of oil. Of these the most important are the Stone Pine, Pinus Pinea, of Italy and the Mediter ranean coasts, and the Russian Stone Pine, Pinus Cembra. The Pinus Sabiniana of California and P. Gerardiana of the Himalayas similarly yield edible seeds. These seeds possess a pleasant, slightly resinous flavour. The Pistachio nut is the fruit of Pistacia vera, L. (Anacardiacex). It is a native of Syria. Although a remarkably delicious nut and much prized by the Greeks and other Eastern nations, it is not well known in Britain. It is not so large as a hazel nut, but is rather longer and much thinner, and the shell is covered with a somewhat wrinkled skin. The small nut of Pistacia Lentiscm, L., not larger than a cherry stone, is also occasionally imported from Smyrna, Constantinople, and Greece. Ravensara nuts, the fruit of Ayathophyllum aromaticum (Lauraceae), a native of Madagascar, is used as a spice under the name of the Madagascar clove nutmeg. The Sapucaya nut, a Brazilian fruit, is seen occasionally in fruit-shops. It is produced by a large tree, Lecythis Ollaria, or &quot; Cannon-ball tree.&quot; Its specific name is taken from the large urn-shaped capsules, called &quot;monkey-pots&quot; by the inhabitants, which contain the nuts. The sapucaya nut has a sweet flavour, resembling the almond, and if better known would be highly appreciated. It is, how ever, scarce, as the monkeys and other wild animals are said to be particularly fond of it. This nut, which is of a rich amber-brown, is not unlike the Brazil nut, but it has a smooth shell furrowed with deep longitudinal wrinkles. Soap nuts are the fruits of various species of Sapindus, especially S. Saponaria, natives of tropical regions. They are so called because their rind or outer covering contains a principle, saponine, which lathers in water, and so is useful in washing. The pods of Acacia concinna, a native of India, possess the same properties, and are also known as soap nuts. (j. PA.) NUTATION. See ASTRONOMY, vol. ii. pp. 794-5. NUTCRACKER, the name given by Edwards in 1758 (Gleanings, No. 240) to a bird which had hitherto borne no English appellation, though described in 1544 by Turner, who, meeting with it in the Rhaetic Alps, where it was called &quot; Nousbrecher &quot; (hodie &quot; Nussbrecher &quot;), translated that term into Latin as Nucifraga. In 1555 Gesner figured it and conferred upon it another designation, Caryocatactes. It is the Cormis caryocatactes of Linnaeus and the Nuci- frar/a caryocatactes of modern ornithology. Willughby and 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 Pennant, shot at Mostyn in Flintshire, 5th October 1753. and about fifteen more examples have since been procured, and others seen, in the island. In further continuation of the particulars already given (CROW, vol. vi. p. 618), it may here be stated that a careful monograph of the species by the Ritter Victor von Tschusi-Schmidhoffen was printed at Dresden in 1874 with the title of Der Tannenheher, which is one of its many German names. Contrary to what was for many years believed, the nest of the Nutcracker seems to be in variably built on the bough of a tree, some 20 feet from the ground, and is a comparatively large structure of sticks, lined with grass. The eggs are of a very pale bluish-green, sometimes nearly spotless, but usually more or less freckled with pale olive or ash-colour. The chief food of the Nutcracker, though it at times searches for insects on the ground, 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 nuts properly so called with its bill, though that can be used with much force and, at least in confinement, with no little ingenuity. The old supposi tion that the Nutcrackers had any affinity to the Wood peckers (Picidae) or were intermediate in position between them and the Crows (Corvidse) is now known to be wholly erroneous, for they undoubtedly belong to the latter Family. (A. N.) NUTHATCH, in older English NUTHACK, from its habit of hacking or chipping nuts, which it cleverly fixes, as though in a vice, in a chink or crevice of the bark of a tree, and then hammers them with the point of its bill till the shell is broken. This bird was long thought to be the Sitta europeea of Linnaeus ; but that is now admitted to be the northern form, with the lower parts white, and its buff-breasted representative in central, southern, and western Europe, including England, is known as Sitta. csesia. It is not found in Ireland, and in Scotland its appearance is merely accidental. Without being very plentiful anywhere, it is generally distributed in suitable localities throughout its range those localities being such as afford it a sufficient supply of food, consisting during the greater part of the year of insects, which it diligently seeks on the boles and larger limbs of old trees ; but in autumn and winter it feeds on nuts, beech-mast, the stones of yew-berries, and hard seeds. Being of a bold disposi tion, and the trees favouring its mode of life often grow ing near houses, it will become on slight encouragement familiar Avith men ; and its neat attire of ash-grey and warm buff, together with its sprightly gestures, render it an attractive visitor. It generally makes its nest in a hollow branch, plastering up the opening with clay, leaving only a circular hole just large enough to afford entrance and exit; and the interior contains a bed of dry leaves or the filmy flakes of the inner bark of a fir or cedar, on which the eggs are laid. In the Levant occurs another species, S. syriaca, with somewhat different habits, as it haunts rocks rather than trees ; and four or five representatives of the Euro pean arboreal species have their respective ranges from Asia Minor to the Himalayas and Northern China. North America possesses nearly as many ; but, curiously enough, the geographical difference of coloration is just the reverse of what it is in Europe the species with a deep rufous breast, S. canadensis, being that which has the most north ern range, while the white-bellied S. carolinensis, with its western form, S. aculeata, inhabits more southern latitudes. The Ethiopian Region seems to have no representative of the group, unless it be the Hypositta corallirostris _ of Madagascar. Callisitta and Dendrophila are nearly allied XVII 84