212 THE BIRDS OP KENT 



may infer that the work was recent. Merrett's testimony, 

 which was possibly unknown to Pennant, induces the 

 opinion that he was misinformed, or else that his state- 

 ment refers to a restoration of the species to its old 

 haunts." 



In the Zoologist, 1844, the Eev. J. Pemberton Bartlett, 

 in his Ornithological Notes on tJie Birds of Kent, says : 

 " These birds are still rarely to be met with in the 

 neighbourhood of the cliffs at Dover, where in the time 

 of Shakespeare they were wont ' to wing the midway 

 air.' But there is every probability that the hissing and 

 roaring of engines and railway trains will speedily and 

 for ever scare them from their ancient haunts." 



There is no doubt that both the references made by 

 Shakespeare to the " Crows and Choughs " are meant 

 for the Jackdaw. So great an observer of Nature as 

 Shakespeare would never have omitted the red bill and 

 legs. Therefore, the quotations belong to the grey-naped 

 Jackdaw. In Mr. J. E. Harting's last edition of the 

 Handhooh of British Birds, 1901, he states: "In the 

 Zoologist for September, 1893, I have shown that the 

 ' russet-pated Chough ' of Shakespeare (' Midsummer 

 Nights' Dream,' iii., 2) was not the red-billed Chough, 

 but the grey-pated Jackdaw. The latter was commonly 

 called Chough, and russet with some writers meant grey ; 

 the head of the Chough, like the rest of its body, is 

 perfectly black." 



