36 THE BIRDS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



of woodpecker. Its size, form and mottled plumage should be 

 distinctive to any one who meets with this wanderer in the field. 

 Seebohm describes its "peculiar slow undulating- Jay-like 

 flight " and its harsh calls. On the Continent it nests in March. 

 It feeds on seeds of the cedar, nuts, and acorns and on 

 insects. 



The general colour is chocolate-brown, with large white 

 spots except on the crown and nape ; the wings and tail are 

 almost black, the latter tipped with white. The under tail- 

 coverts are conspicuously white. The bill is brownish-black, 

 the legs black, the irides brown. 



The Siberian bird has a longer, more pointed and slender 

 bill than the European form. Length, about 12-5 ins. Wing, 

 775 ins. Tarsus, I'Ss ins. 



Chough. Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax (Linn.). 



A melancholy interest surrounds the Chough (Plate 13), 

 whose glossy black dress, long curved red bill and red legs 

 distinguish it from all other birds ; it is a species that is going 

 under. Egg-collecting has helped to weaken it, but competition 

 with, rather than the antagonism of, the increasing pushful 

 Jackdaw, its frequent companion, has much to do with its 

 decrease ; it is a gentle, sedentary, conservative bird, rarely 

 met with far from its bieeding haunts. Many old stations are 

 now deserted, though the nests were not accessible to even 

 daring cragsmen ; its position in the south-west of England, 

 where it was called the Cornish Chough, is insecure. It lingers 

 in coastwise and a few inland haunts in Wales, the Isle of 

 Man, south-west Scotland, some of the Hebridean islands and 

 Ireland. As a boy I well remember seeing a few feeding with 

 Daws on rough fields close to Llandudno Station. Manx laws 

 protect it, but I have a photograph of one hung as a scarecrow 



