122 British Birds y 



FAMILY XX.— CORVIDiE. 



CHOUGH — {Pyrrhocorax gracidus ; formerly, 

 Fregilus graculus.) 



Cornish Chough, Red-legged Crow, Cornish Daw, 

 Cornwall Kae, Market-jew Crow, ChaukDaw, Hermit 

 Crow, Cliff Daw, etc. — A bird which occurs more 

 sparingly than it used to do. Its abiding and build- 

 ing place is among the steep rocks which line so many 

 parts of the British coasts. In the Isle of Wight, in 

 Man, on the Cornish shores, at Flamborough, in 

 Berwickshire near St. Abb's Head, it is still (or was 

 till lately, I860,) known to breed. " This bird," says Mr. 

 Yarrell, " makes a nest of sticks lined with wool and 

 hair, in the cavities of high cliffs, or in old castles, or 

 church towers near the sea ; laying four or five eggs 

 of a yellowish-white colour, spotted with ash-grey and 

 light hxo^ny— Fig 2, plate V, 



RAVEN — {Corvus cor ax). 



Corbie, Corbie Crow, Great Corbie Crow. — I dare 

 say the acquaintance of many of us with this fine 

 bird is limited to an introduction to some tame or pet 

 Raven. In this district, where, 1 believe, these birds 

 abounded a little more than half a century since — the 

 rocky cliffs of our moorland solitudes being so well 

 suited to their habits, — I do not know that I have 

 seen or heard one for the last thirty-five or forty 

 years. Persecuted by the gamekeeper, sought after 

 for domestication, or their eggs taken for sale to the 

 collector, they are becoming very rare in many a part 

 of the country where not long since they were fre- 



