Mr. W. Thompson on the Birds of Ireland. 423 



of feeding on " sheep- shanks " and other similar rejectamenta. As 

 the chough is not considered a carnivorous bird, I was most parti- 

 ticular in questioning my informant as to the species, and of his ac- 

 curacy there cannot be a doubt. Montagu mentions that his tame 

 bird was fed partly on raw and boiled flesh-meat. 



Mr. R. Davis, jun., of Clonmel, informs me respecting the chough, 

 that it has been shot within a mile of that town, and that he has 

 seen the species at Helvick Head in the county of Waterford, and 

 great numbers at Loop Head on the coast of Clare ; — about the marine 

 cliffs generally of the latter county, Mr. W. H. Harvey states that 

 it is common. Mr. Davis writes — ■' although Mr. Selby says * it has 

 been remarked that the chough will not alight on the turf if it can 

 possibly avoid it, always preferring gravel, stones or walls,' I have 

 seen hundreds freely alight and feed on it, and have observed them 

 feeding like rooks in a ploughed field." I have myself observed 

 these birds on the short pasture of the marine cliffs, but consider 

 that they have the predilection noticed by Mr. Selby, whose re- 

 mark however may refer merely to Montagu's tame bird. Mr. 

 Davis further states, that " great numbers of choughs breed in the 

 precipices over the lakes in the Cummeragh mountains, county of 

 Waterford, about seven Irish miles from the sea, where they are 

 very rarely molested, on account of nestling in almost inaccessible 

 spots. Here the young were ready to fly on the 6th and 7th of 

 August 1836 : on the 28th of April 1841, I got four of their eggs 

 from this locality." 



I have seen examples of the chough which were killed about Port- 

 patrick in Wigtonshire, and on the Ayrshire coast ; and have heard 

 the call of the species in the evening about the ruined castle at Bal- 

 lantrae in the latter county. In July 1826, when in the valley of 

 glaciers on the south side of Mont Blanc, I was attracted by the 

 well-known but somewhat distant call of the chough, and on looking 

 up saw an immense flock bending their way towards the pinnacles 

 or aiguilles of that " monarch of mountains*." 



The Raven, Corvus Corax, Linn., is distributed over 

 Ireland, and is more especially to be seen within a day's 

 foray of the rocks in which it can roost or nestle. As sites 

 for the raven's building, rocks are preferred to trees in this 

 island, and wherever there is a range of cliffs suited to the 

 purpose this bird is sure to be found, unless the eagle or buz- 



* The call of the closely allied Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax, Temm., like- 

 wise an inhabitant of the Alps, is unknown to me, but in the present in- 

 stance my attention was arrested by the similarity of the note to that of our 

 native bird. 



This to my ear is very lively and pleasing, and cannot be mistaken for 

 that of the jackdaw. The flight of the chough too is peculiar, though, as 

 in others of the Corvidce, the quills are much expanded, and give a deeply 

 fringed appearance to the wing as the bird flies overhead. A friend re- 

 marks upon the flight as " singularly waving ; they flap their wings, then sail 

 forty or fifty yards, and so on gradually until they alight." 



