94 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS 



hatch them. See Field, Sept. 23, 1882 ; Zool, 1882, 

 p. 431; Lord Lilford, Field, Sept. 30, 1882; and 

 Ralph Nevill, Field, Oct. 7, 1882. 



In the Zoologist for September 1893, I have 

 shown that the *' russet-pated Chough " of Shake- 

 speare ("Mids. Night's 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. 



An example of the yellow-billed Alpine Chough, 

 Pyrrhocorax alpinus, was shot near Banbury, Ox- 

 fordshire, in April 1881, but had probably escaped 

 from confinement, as this species is not migratory 

 in its habits, and is confined to the mountains of 

 Central and Southern Europe. 



RAVEN. Corvus corax, Linnaeus. PI. 15, fig. 1. Length, 

 24 in. ; bill, 3 in.; wing, 17 in.; tarsus, 275 in. 



Locally resident, resorting to high cliffs some- 

 times inland ; more numerous in Scotland, par- 

 ticularly in the west. It is especially abundant in 

 Shetland, where Saxby has seen upwards of forty 

 within the space of a few acres, and hundreds feeding 

 on the carcases of whales that had been driven ashore 

 and were left to decay (" Birds of Shetland," p. 122). 



Ravens, like birds of prey, pair for life ; and, 

 like Rooks, repair their old nests very early in the 

 spring. The nest is usually built in a cliff, and 

 often upon an inaccessible ledge, screened from 

 observation from above by overhanging rocks. But 



