254 corvidj:. 



duchy, that the prefix "Cornish" has been very generally 

 applied to its name.* Upton, a canon of Salisbury, whose 

 heraldic work, written about the middle of the fifteenth 

 century, was published some two hundred years laterf, speaks 

 of it as especially found in Cornwall, some of the old families 

 of which (as indeed of other counties also) bore it in their 

 coat- armour. Turner, in 1544, though confounding it with 

 its yellow-billed relation {Pyrrhocorax alpinus) mentioned 

 Cornwall as the only locality for it in England, as, in 1586, 

 did Camden (p. 73), who speaks of its dangerous and 

 thieving propensities — carrying sticks of firet and stealing 

 money. On this account Carew in his ' Survey of Cornwall ' 

 (1602, fol. 36) termed it a " slaunder " of that county, to 

 which it was peculiar — statements repeated by Childrey, in 

 1661. § Charleton in 1668 (p. 68) speaks to its frequency in 

 Cornwall, where, he adds, it was also called " Killegrew " — 

 a name that seems to have become extinct. Borlase, in 1758, 

 who had the advantage of coming after Willughby and Ray, 

 is less credulous. He naturally makes the most of the bird, 

 alleging that its imputed faults are really due to the Daw, 

 and he was the first to refer to Upton, as above quoted. In 

 Cornwall now it is extremely local and very far from common, 

 being only met with sparingly in certain spots, chiefly in the 

 northern coast, yet breeding, or attempting to breed, there 

 annually. Dr. Bullmore says that some years ago large 

 numbers used to be caught by baited steel-traps on the 

 Perran Sands. On the north coast of Devon the Chough is 

 said still to have a few resorts, and on Lundy Island it is 

 reported to be yet numerous. In Somerset a few of this 

 species used to breed regularly near Minehead ; but, their 

 nests being, says Mr. Cecil Smith, one year destroyed by 

 some masons, the birds never returned to their old quarters, 



* This usage is not limited to English authors. Sibbald, in 168-1, named the 

 bird the " Cornwall Kac ", and that is all he says about it ; but he has " Cornix, 

 the Choufjh" as well (ii. pt. 2, p. 15). 



f Nicolai Vpton de studio militari. Ed. Bisse, Londini : 1651, fol. p. 194. 



t The bird's red bill possibly suggested the charge. 



§ The Editor finds that the passage before quoted (page 191) from this author 

 is founded on Carew's evidence {op. cit. fol. 25 verso). 



