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■with private nesting places fixed as high as possible, and feed principally

on animal food and insects. Give cooked meat as well as raw, the latter

not too bountifully especially to a single bird. REGINALD PhillippS.


[The Choughs did not breed in the higher cliffs, but in the lower

ranges. Why was this ? The higher cliffs were occupied by Kestrels ; but a

Chough would not care a feather for a Kestrel. There was hardly a Chough’s

nest that I could not have climbed to with a little amateur assistance;

several I did reach, some quite easily. The Kestrels’ nests could have been

reached only' by a skilled cragsman with an experienced assistant and rope.

I did not succeed in visiting one. I did try 7 for one ; but the faces of the

high cliffs were rotten and impossible. Was this the cause ? The lower

cliffs were not rotten to the same degree. The comparatively 7 few Kestrels

could have found plenty of deep ledges where they would be sheltered

from falling stones. And they 7 are not always on their feet like the Choughs.

The latter, nervous, cautious and restless, sitting, roosting and nesting

nearer the surface of the cliff, may have objected to the crumbling

precipices; on the lower cliffs, too, they would be nearer their food, and

could watch the shore, and drop down in a moment on any 7 attractive

object or for the purpose of following their favourite pursuit of hunting

amongst the stones for insects. Or were the high cliffs too much exposed

to the cold winds and storms ? In severe weather my Chough would go to

roost in the birdroom, and would fight like a demon rather than budge one

inch. Directly the weather softened out he would go, and nothing would

induce him to roost inside. In this he differed from the Jackdaws who,

whether normal or White, preferred roosting out of doors. Does this

prove that the Jackdaw is more hardy than the Chough ? Not necessarily 7 ;

the former sleeps in holes, but the Chough rarely or never. As I have

pointed out more than once, species that sleep in holes and boxes can stand

cold which will kill others, perhaps equally hardy, which roost more in

the open.


The more I consider the matter, the more satisfied I feel that the

Choughs frequented and bred in the lower cliffs because of their restless

nature, and desire to be constantly stretching their legs and using their

bills among the stones. This view is supported by 7 their preference for

those cliffs against which the waves did not beat at low tide. Those that

were not faced by any 7 foreshore were avoided.


In those days I practically never saw a human on the shore, excepting

only in one spot which the Choughs did not favour. But when I add that

a railroad has long since been run into the neighbourhood I have said

enough. — R. P.]



“ IN DEATH NOT DIVIDED.”


Sir,—A few weeks since I noticed a ragged bundle swinging to and

fro in the wind from a crack in the N. wall of our Church. I wondered

what it was, but it was too high up to see. To-day I found “it” on the

ground, blown down by 7 the gale. You will notice it is a cock and hen

Sparrow securely fastened together by 7 one leg each by a bit of thread. I

suppose they were nesting in the hole, but how they both got so securely

entangled I cannot think. What a pitiful little tragedy, and what suffering

before the end came? C. D. Farrar.



