I92I-] Birds of Alder neij. 421 



there would appear to be no reason why it shouhl not be met 

 with in winter. I have no record o£ it in the spring. 



Corvus monedula. The Jackdaw. 



This bird breeds here and is a resident, although not 

 common outside the breeding-season, and frequently almost 

 entirely absent. Those which breed here arrive, doubtless 

 from the adjacent French coast, in the early spring, when for 

 some days a flock of perhaps twenty or thirty birds may be 

 seen performing evolutions in the air, at intervals returning 

 to ground, and evidently reconnoitring the cliffs foi- a suit- 

 able nesting-place. After the breeding-season they disappear 

 except for a few isolated individuals, the flock appearing 

 again at uncertain intervals during summer and winter, to 

 depart again after a few days' visit. 



Pica pica. The Magpie. 



I have not observed this bird myself on the island, and 

 it must be considered as a rare visitor only, the absence 

 of high trees and tall undergrowth no doul)t accounting 

 for this. 



L. saw three of them together in about the year 1000, but 

 is uncertain of the date. He also saw three in September 

 1919, and tells me that during the hard winter of 1870 they 

 were very numerous, and that many were caught atid kept 

 as pets by the islanders. 



The bird is fairly common in Guernsey. 



Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax. The Chough. 



Mr. Cecil Smith writes : "In Sark the Choughs have by 

 no means so easy a time, as the Jackdaws outnumber them 

 about the cliffs, and will j)robahly eventually drive them out 

 of the islantl ; indeed, I am afraid they have don(^ this in 

 Alderney, as I did not see any when there in the sunnner of 

 1876, nor in this last summer (1878). I, however, saAV some 

 there in previous visits, l)ut now for some reason, probably 

 the increase of Jackdaws, the Choughs appear to be nearly, 

 if not quite, to have deserted the island." This is, and 

 probably will remain, the last record of the Chouoh in 



