222 CHOUGH. 



and decidedly numerous on those of Mayo, Donegal and Antrim ; 

 but the east side of the island affords few favourable sites. 



In the Channel Islands, especially Guernsey, the Chough is 

 tolerably common, and it breeds in some of the rocky portions of 

 the north-western and west coasts of France, as well as in those of 

 Portugal. It is, however, in inland mountainous situations, such as 

 some parts of the Alps, the Carpathians, the Parnassus, the Urals, 

 the Apennines, the Pyrenees, and the south of Spain, that it is 

 most abundant, while on the rocky islands of the Mediterranean 

 it is plentiful; it is also resident in the hill-regions of Northern 

 Africa, Abyssinia, Arabia, Asia Minor, the Caucasus, and Persia, 

 and throughout the mountain ranges of Asia as far as North-eastern 

 China. As -a rule this bird is little given to wandering. 



The nest, built from the latter part of April to the middle of May, 

 is composed of long wiry stems of heather, or of some deciduous 

 plant, and is well lined with wool and hair. It is frequently placed 

 in some cavity in the roof of a cave ; but sometimes in vertical 

 fissures, holes of ruins, or disused lime-kilns. The eggs, 3-5 in 

 number, are greyish-white with occasionally a yellow or greenish 

 tinge, spotted and streaked with several shades of dark grey and 

 pale brown : average measurements 1*5 by I'l in. When flying, the 

 Chough performs a series of curves in the air, alternately rising with 

 a scream, and then suddenly dropping with almost closed wings ; 

 but on the ground its movement is a short and very quick run. 

 The usual cry is a clear metallic 'kling,' but in autumn I have heard 

 flocks uttering 'chough-chough ' very plainly. The food consists of 

 insects and their larvae, and occasionally of grain. 



In the adult male the plumage is glossy bluish-black, with a slight 

 green tint on the primaries ; bill, legs, and feet cherry-red. Length 

 16 in. ; wing 107 in. The female only differs in being somewhat 

 smaller. In the nestling the beak and legs are dull orange, but by 

 September those parts have become as red as in the parents. 



A yellow-billed Alpine Chough, F. a/piuus, shot near Banbury, 

 Oxfordshire, on April 8th iSSi, and examined in the flesh by Mr. 

 O. V. Aplin, is now in the collection of Mr. Whitaker. The species 

 is eminently sedentary, and it is unlikely that an individual should 

 have wandered so far from its home in the mountains of Central and 

 Southern Europe. I believe that Lady Dorothy Nevill, who has 

 been successful in inducing our species to breed in confinement, has 

 purchased importations from the Continent, and it is probable that 

 the bird in question had escaped. 



