ALPINE CHOUGH. 101- 



was merely an escaped bird : I could not^ however, hear of any 

 cag-ed examples having been lost about that time, and Lord 

 Lilford, who had some at Lilford, informed me he had not 

 lost any. In appearance our bird showed no signs of ever 

 having been confined in an aviary. The unrubbed and 

 beautiful condition of the pkmiage perhaps does not prove 

 much, but the feet, which in caged birds are often affected, 

 and almost always have long unworn claws, were those of 

 a wild bird ; the body was well nourished but not unduly fat. 

 Above all, the food which I found in the stomach was 

 perfectly consonant with the natural habits of this species, 

 consisting of remains of small beetles and one caterpillar, 

 entire, about an inch long. Since the occurrence of this 

 specimen in Oxfordshire, the Alpine Chough, as Mr. J. 

 Cordeaux kindly informs me, has been recorded to have 

 occurred twice on the island of Heligoland, a spot noted for 

 the numbers of rare sptjies, otherwise almost vmknown in 

 Western Europe, which have been procured there {Bulletin de 

 la Societe Zoologique de France, t. vii, 1883). Now this fact 

 is very important ; for the connection, in regard to the 

 migration of birds, between Heligoland and the east coast of 

 England is so intimate, and corresponding migrations affecting 

 both localities have happened so often {vide J. H. Gurney, 

 jun.. Trans. Norfolk and Nortvich ISaturalists' Society, vol. iv. 

 p. 52), that the improbability of the Alpine Chough visiting 

 England as a casual wanderer is thereby greatly diminished. 

 And it is submitted that the claim of this species to a place 

 on the roll of our British Birds is at least as good as that of 

 some others, the appearance of which in this country is equally 

 unusual and improbable, but whose place among our avifauna 

 has never been disputed. To some extent its claims have 

 abeady been conceded; for Mr. Seebohm makes some reference 

 to the occurrence, and figures the it^^ of the bird, in his 

 History of British Birds (vol, i. p. 580), and in the latest 

 revised list of British Birds it is included, in square brackets, 



