56 THE CHOUGH 
near Melbourne in Cambridgeshire, some large patches of reeds, 
which were rented at a certain annual sum, and which the tenant 
sold to builders to use in making plaster-floors and ceilings of rooms. 
Towards autumn, Starlings resorted to them in such numbers to 
roost, that unless scared away, they settled upon the reeds, broke 
them down and rendered them completely useless. It required a 
person to keep watch every evening for some time, and fire at them 
repeatedly with a gun as they were settling down ; but as the spot 
was a favourite one, they showed considerable reluctance in quitting 
it. 
THE ROSE-COLOURED STARLING 
PASTOR ROSEUS 
Head crested; crest and neck black, lustrous with violet reflections; back 
and lower parts rose-colour; wings and tail lustrous brown. Length 
eight inches. 
A VERY beautiful bird, partaking the characters of the Starlings 
and Crows. It is an inhabitant of Syria, Asia Minor, and Africa, 
where it is gregarious in its habits, and does much mischief to the 
grain crops. It comes as a straggler to our country from spring 
to autumn; only, unfortunately, to be shot as a ‘specimen’. 
FAMILY CORVID 
THE CHOUGH 
PYRRHOCORAX GRACULUS 
Plumage black, with purple and green reflections ; beak and feet coral-red 3 
claws black. Length sixteen inches; width thirty-two inches. Eggs 
yellowish white, spotted with ash-grey and light brown. 
CoNTINENTAL authors state that the bird which we call the Chough 
or Red-legged Crow frequents the highest mountain regions and 
the confines of perpetual snow, and that hence it is sometimes 
known by the name of ‘ Jackdaw of the Alps’. Like the rest of 
its tribe, it is omnivorous, and lives in societies, like the common 
Jackdaw and Rook, but rarely deserting, and then only when pressed 
by hunger, the place of its birth. With us it is never seen inland, 
confining itself to the rocky sea-coast, where it builds its nest in 
inaccessible cliffs, and leads the same kind of life with its sable 
relatives the Crows and Jackdaws, though it never ventures, as they 
do, far from its sea-side strongholds. The name Chough was proba- 
bly in ancient times used as a common appellation of all the mem- 
bers of the family Corvide which have black plumage, this one being 
