THE CHOUGh. 309 



distance inland, and has u^en observed in the act of following the ploughman after the manner 

 of the rook, busily engaged in picking up the grubs that are unearthed. Sometimes it will 

 feed upon berries and grain, but evidently prefers animal food, pecking its prey out of the 

 crevices among the rocks with great rapidity and certainty of aim, its long and curved beak 

 aiding it in drawing the concealed insects out of their hiding-places. In England, the county 

 Cornwall is the chief nesting-place of the Chough, but it is also found in many other portions 

 of the British Isles; and the celebrated lines in "King Lear" are too familiarly known to 

 need quoting as a proof that the Chough was in Shakespeare's time an inhabitant of the Dover 

 cliffs. It is also found in many other parts of the world, having been observed even in Asia, 

 and several districts of Africa. 



The character of the Chough is not unlike that of the magpie, and is so admirably 

 delineated by Montagu in an account of a tame specimen in his possession, that it must be 

 related in his own words : 



"His curiosity is beyond bounds, never failing to examine anything new to him. If the 

 gardener is pruning, he examines the nail-box, carries off the nails, and scatters the shreds 

 about. Should a ladder be left against the wall, he instantly mounts and goes all round the 

 top of the wall ; and if hungry, descends at a convenient place and immediately travels to 

 the kitchen-window, where he makes an incessant knocking with his bill till he is fed or let 

 in : if allowed to enter, his first endeavor is to get upstairs, and if not interrupted, goes as 

 high as he can, and gets into any room in the attic story ; but his intention is to get upon the 

 top of the house. He is excessively fond of being caressed, and would stand quietly by the 

 hour to be smoothed, but resents an affront with violence and effect both by bill and claws, 

 and will hold so fast by the latter that he is with difficulty disengaged ; is extremely attached 

 to one lady, upon the back of whose chair he will sit for hours, and is particularly fond of 

 making one in a party at breakfast, or in a summer's evening at the tea-table in the shrubbery. 



" His natural food is evidently the smallest insects ; even the minute species he picks out 

 of the crevices of the walls, and searches for them in summer with great diligence. The com- 

 mon grasshopper is a great dainty, and the fern chaffer is another favorite morsel : these are 

 swallowed whole ; but if the great chaffer be given to him, he places it under one foot, pulls it 

 to pieces, and eats it by piecemeal. Worms are wholly rejected, but flesh, raw or dressed, 

 and bread he eats greedily, and sometimes barley, with the pheasants and other granivorous 

 birds occasionally turned into the garden, and never refuses hempseed. He seldom attempts 

 to hide the remainder of a meal. 



"With a very considerable share of attachment, he is naturally pugnacious, and the hand 

 that the moment before had tendered him food and caresses will repent an attempt to take 

 him up. To children he has an utter aversion, and will scarcely suffer them to enter the 

 garden. Even strangers of any age are challenged with impunity ; he approaches all with 

 daring impudence, and so completely does the sight of strangers change his affection for the 

 time, that even his favorites and best benefactors cannot touch him with impunity in these 

 moments of evident displeasure." 



As is the case with nearly all coast birds, the Chough builds its nest at no great distance 

 from the sea, generally choosing some convenient crevice in a cliff, or an old ruin near the 

 sea-shore. The nest is always placed at a considerable elevation from the ground, and is 

 made of sticks lined with wool, hair, and other soft substances. The eggs are usually five in 

 number, and in color they are yellower than those of the crow or rook, but are spotted with 

 similar tints. The general color of the Chough is black, with a rich blue gloss, contrasting 

 well with the vermilion-red of the beak, legs, and toes. The claws are black, and the eyes are 

 curiously colored with red and blue in concentric circles. The total length of the adult male 

 Chough is about seventeen inches, and the female is about three inches shorter. 



