198 THE CHOUGH. 



mentioned by Bishop Lesley in his history De Origine 

 Scoiorum, published about 300 years ago/ has been over- 

 looked or disregarded by naturalists, who have considered 

 the bird peculiar to the western shores of Britain ; and it is 

 to the Eev. A. Baird ^ that we are indebted for the confirma- 

 tion of the accuracy of the Bishop's information ; and, of 

 course, for showing that the limits usually assigned to the 

 distribution of the Chough in this country are erroneous."^ 

 Selby, writing on the Ornithology of Berivickshire in 1841, 

 mentions that it " finds a congenial retreat in the precipices 

 of St. Abb's Head and adjoining coast," and that " here it 

 is not uncommon, but being a bird of wary habit, it is 

 very difficult to approach within gunshot, and specimens are 

 not easily obtained."* In 1846, Mr. Hardy noted that a 

 pair were then at Fast Castle, and that the young used 

 formerly to be climbed for, and taken out of the nests, to 

 be tamed.^ Mr. Archibald Hepburn, in a paper " On some 

 of the Mammalia and Birds found at St. Abb's Head " in 

 1851, says that "the Chough or Eed-legged Crow is now 

 extinct, except a solitary pair," which, according to his 

 information, " seldom strayed far from Fast Castle, a few 

 miles to the eastward of the Head." ^ In 1855, Mr. 

 Wilson, Coldiugham, wrote that the "Red-legged Crow 

 or Kay built formerly at Biter- cove and Thrummycarr 

 Heugh, but is now extinct in this neighbourhood."'' Dr. 

 Turnbull, in his Birds of East-Lothian, written in 1866, 

 alluding to this bird at St. Abb's Head, says : — " It is still 



1 Published in 1578, ed. 1675, p. 17. 



2 Assistant minister of the united Parishes of Cockburnspath and Old- 

 cambus. He wrote the Pteport on these parishes in the New Statistical Account 

 of Scotland in 1834. He was one of the original members of the Berwickshire 

 Naturalists' Club. 



3 Hist. Ber. Nat. Club, vol. i. p. 6. •♦ Ihid. vol. i. p. 253. 



5 From MS. Notes by Mr. Hardy. 



6 Hist. Ber. Nat. Club, vol. iii. p. 72. 



7 From MS. Notes by Mr. Hardy. 



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