PYRRHOCORAX PYRRHOCORAX 157 



Genus III. PYERHOCORAX. 



Bill red or yellow, slender ; culiiieii about the same length as the 

 tarsus ; nostrils covered by stiff bristly feathers directed forward. Wing 

 long and pointed, about twice the length of the tail. Tail rounded and of 

 12 feathers. Tarsi, feet and claws red. Plumage entirely glossy black. 



Type. 



Pyrrhocorax, Vieill. Analyse, p. 36 (1816) P. pijrrhocorax. 



Piegilus, Cuv. E. Anim. i. p. 106 (1817) P. graculus. 



This genus ranges from the British Island eastward to China and soutji- 

 ward into North and North-east Africa. It includes two species, of which 

 only one occurs in the Ethiopian Eegion. 



Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax. 



Upupa pyrrhocorax, Linn. S. N. (x.) p. 118 (1758). 



Corvus pyrrhocorax, Linn. S. N. (xii.) i. p. 158 (1766) Europe. 



Pyi-rhocorax pyrrhocorax, Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 610 (1896) ; Eeichen. 



Vog. Afr. ii. p. 645 (1903). 

 Pyrrhocorax alpinus var. digitata, Hempr. & Ehr. Symb. Phys. fol. z (1828). 

 Pyrrhocorax rupestris, Brehm. Vog. Deutschl. p. 175 (1831). 

 Pyrrhocorax alpinus, Vieill. N. Diet. vi. p. 568 (1816) ; Dresser, B. Eur. 



iv. p. 445, pi. 251, fig. 2 (1875) ; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. iii. p. 148 



(1877). 



Adult. Black, more shiny above and with a green gloss on the wings, 

 upper tail-coverts and tail. Iris brown ; bill yellow ; tarsi and feet red. 

 Total length 163 inches and 15 5, culmen 1-25, wing ll-Q and 10-5, tail 70, 

 tarsus 1'7. Ussern, <? , and Grim Pass, J (Biddulph). 



Immature. Duller and browner. Bill blackish inclining to yellow to- 

 wards the base ; tarsi and feet blacker. 



The Alpine Chough ranges from the higher mountains of 

 Southern Europe into Abyssinia and the Himalayas. 



Blanford, in his "Geology & Zoology of Abyssinia," p. 395, 

 writes : '' I met with it once on the Wadela plateau, near 

 Gaso, at an elevation of 10,500 feet, but I did not secure a 

 specimen. Tliere was a small flock, not very wary ; indeed 

 I approached so near that I could only account for my not 

 killing a bird by my cartridges being damp. They appeared 

 to be searching for insects on the ground." Heugiin met 



