232 CHOUGH. 



In several of the Channel Islands the Chough was formerly 

 common, and it breeds in some of the rocky portions of the north- 

 western and west coasts of France, as well as in those of the 

 Peninsula. Mountainous situations in the Alps, Carpathians, Par- 

 nassus, Urals, Apennines, Pyrenees, Cantabrian range, and the 

 south of Spain, are, however, its favourite haunts, while on the 

 rocky islands of the Mediterranean it is plentiful ; it is also resident 

 in the hill-regions of Northern Africa, Abyssinia, Arabia, Asia 

 Minor, the Caucasus and Persia, and throughout the mountain 

 ranges of Asia as far as North-eastern China. As a rule this species 

 is little given to wandering. 



The nest, built from the latter part of April to the middle of 

 May, is composed of long wiry stems of heather, or of some 

 deciduous plant, and is well lined with wool and hair. It is 

 frequently placed in some cavity in the roof of a cave ; but some- 

 times in vertical fissures, holes in ruins and grassy banks, or disused 

 lime-kilns. The 3-5 eggs are greyish-white with occasionally a 

 yellow or greenish tinge, spotted and streaked with several shades 

 of dark grey and pale brown : measurements i"5 by i"i in. When 

 flying, the Chough performs a series of curves in the air, alternately 

 rising with a scream and then suddenly dropping with almost closed 

 wings, but on the ground its movement is a short and very quick 

 run. The usual cry is a clear metallic kling, but in autumn I 

 have heard flocks uttering chough-chough very plainly. The food 

 consists of insects and their larvae (in search of which stones are 

 often turned over), and occasionally of grain. 



In the adult male the plumage is glossy bluish-black, with a 

 slight green tint on the primaries ; bill, legs, and feet cherry-red. 

 Length 16 in. ; wing 11 in. The female only differs in being some- 

 what smaller. In the nestling the beak and legs are dull orange, 

 but by September those parts have become as red as in the parent. 



A yellow-billed Alpine Chough, P. alpinus, shot near Banbury, 

 Oxfordshire, on April 8th 1881, and examined in the flesh by Mr. 

 O. V. Aplin, is now in the collection of Mr. J. Whitaker. The 

 species is eminently sedentary, and it is unlikely that an individual 

 should have wandered so far from its home in the mountains of 

 Central and Southern Europe ; on the other hand I believe that 

 Lady Dorothy Nevill, who has been successful in inducing our 

 species to breed in confinement, has purchased importations from 

 the Continent, and it is probable that the bird in question had 

 escaped. 



