6oo 



PERCHING BIRDS 



Choughs are sociable, but at the same time remarkably stay-at- 

 home birds, seldom wandering more than a mile or so away from 

 their native cliffs. Here they breed on the ledges, or in caves, 

 generally in such situations that access to their nests is a matter 

 of considerable difficulty and often danger. Sticks and sprigs of 

 heather, with a lining of wool and hair, are the constituents of the 

 nest, which, at the proper season, contains from three to half-a-dozen 

 cream}- white eggs, with variable brown spots and more deep-seated 

 grey markings, the usual length being li inches. In Ladak choughs 

 inhabit some of the bare sand-covered mountains in vast numbers, a 

 haunt very different from the breezy Cornish cliffs. 



A single example of the Alpine chough {PyrrJiocorax alpinus, or 

 P. pyrrhocorax) shot many years ago in Oxfordshire had probably 

 escaped from captivity. 



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WINGS OF MALK AND FKMAI.K I'AKTKIDGE, TO SHOW DIFFERENCE. 



