528 



NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



Our last figure of birds of this family needs only a few touches of color to give a 

 striking picture of two remarkable species. Both are uniform black, the upper figure, 

 the chough (Fregilus ymcuhis), with feet and bill vermilion red, while the Alpine 

 species (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax} has the bill yellow. Both forms are inhabitants 

 of mountainous districts in the southern parts of the Palaearctic region, the first-men- 

 tioned even so far north as the British Islands. They differ considerably from the 



FIG. 261. Fregilus graculus, chough ; Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax, Alpine chough. 



rest of the crows in several respects, their bills being much weaker, and the nostrils 

 are placed much higher and nearer the culmen. Inter se -they differ again, as seen in 

 the figure, by the shape of the bill, and the chough by having booted tarsi. They 

 stand quite isolated among the crows of the present day, and several facts point 

 towards their being only the last survivals of a once numerous group, which before 

 long will succumb and become finally extinct. Its fate in the British Islands is very 

 suggestive, as will be seen by the following extracts from Mr. Seebohm's recent 



