CHOUGH. 253 



omnibus oris maritirnis a Cornubia ad Doroberuiarn * ", and 

 there is poetical authority, at least, for its existence near 

 Dover at a much earlier date. Shakespear, in his well- 

 known description of the celebrated cliff which now bears 

 his name, says in reference to its height : — 



The Crows and Choughsf , that wing the midway air, 

 Shew scarce so gross as beetles. — King Lear, Act iv. Sc. 6. 



Gilbert White wrote in 1773 that these birds abounded and 

 bred on Beachy Head, and in all the cliffs of the Sussex 

 coast ; but both in that county and in Kent the species is 

 now believed to be extinct — indeed it seems to have been lost 

 to the latter in Montagu's time (1802). The Author has 

 seen it on the highest part of the cliffs between Freshwater 

 Gate and the Needles in the Isle of Wight ; but its habita- 

 tion of this locality at present seems to be doubtful. In 

 the Isle of Purbeck a few pairs still remain from Studland 

 to Lulworth Cove — Gadcliff and St. Alban's Head being 

 their stronghold. Further to the westward in Dorset the 

 species does not now occur, and its existence on the south 

 coast of Devon is questionable. In Cornwall, though very 

 far from abundant, it is more numerous, and has been so 

 long associated in popular estimation with that ancient 



* Meaning no doubt Dover ; hut it may be noted that another Dorobernia, 

 the city of Canterbury, bears Choughs in its arms. Pennant in the editions of his 

 ' British Zoology ', published in 1776, said that they were found in small numbers 

 on Dover Cliff, " wdiere they came by accident :" a pair sent from Cornwall having 

 "escaped, and stocked these rocks." No date is given, but as the passage is not 

 in his earlier editions, we may infer that the event was recent. Merrett's testimony, 

 which was possibly unknown to Pennant, induces the opinion that he was misin- 

 formed, or else that his statement refers to a restoration of the species to its old 

 haunts. 



f The word Chough was doubtless to some extent interchangeable with Daw 

 in Shakespear's time, as it is at this day, even in Cornwall, according to informa- 

 tion received by the Editor from Mr. D. Stephens, of Trevornan. But that the 

 poet was acquainted with the present species is proved by the epithet "russet- 

 pated " applied to it by him in another place (Midsummer Night's Dream, Act 

 iii. Sc. 2). The meaning of this epithet has given rise to much ingenious dis- 

 cussion, but the late Mr. E. T. Dennett, in 1835, doubtless supplied its true 

 explanation, when he suggested (Zool. Journ. v. p. 49C) that the correct reading 

 is "russet-patted" >'.<. " red-footed " (/»"//' being a known equivalent of foot), 

 and this view lias been adopted by Mr. Aldis Wright in his recent edition of the 

 play (Clarendon Press Series, pp. 30, 1 1 2 



