8 BIRDS OF TUNISIA 



In its habits the Chough is strictly sedentary, though at times it 

 will abandon a locality and appear in another, without apparent 

 reason. It frequents mountains and rocky cliffs, and in some 

 countries, as in England, evinces a partiality for the sea-coast. In 

 our country, in fact, the species seems to be now quite a maritime 

 bird, being wholly confined to the sea-coast and occurring no longer, 

 as it used to do, in some inland districts. This, however, is no doubt 

 the exception to the rule, for in most countries the Chough inhabits 

 high inland mountains, and in Sicily, where the species is remarkably 

 plentiful, I know of no instance of its making its home on the sea- 

 coast, although there are many localities there calculated to attract it, 

 offering, as they do, secure refuge and ideal nesting sites. The Jack- 

 daws have long discovered these havens of rest on the Sicilian coasts, 

 and are to be found frequenting many of them in large colonies. 



Like the Jackdaw and Rook, the present species is distinctly 

 gregarious, consorting in numbers together and breeding in colonies. 

 Its nest is usually placed in a cleft in some inaccessible cliff and is 

 built of dry sticks with a little hair or wool ; the eggs, three to six in 

 number, being of a creamy or greenish-white colour, with grey shell- 

 marks and brown surface-spots. In its erratic, though not ungraceful 

 flight, it greatly resembles the Jackdaw, and its note also somewhat 

 resembles the note of that bird. It feeds chiefly on insects and their 

 larvae, but will also eat grain and seeds of various kinds. 



There appears to be no instance of the occurrence of the Alpine 

 Chough (P. alpinus) in North-west Africa, nor is the species supposed 

 to be found in the more southern parts of Italy, or in Sicily and 

 Sardinia, though it has apparently been observed in Corsica. I 

 have, however, been assured on good authority that a small colony 

 of the Alpine Chough is to be met with on a certain mountain not far 

 from Palermo, in Sicily, and hope shortly to be able to verify this 

 interesting fact. Though generally considered a shy and wary bird, 

 the Alpine Chough ajDpears to become remarkably tame at times, and 

 at Caux, in Switzerland, is said to come and pick up crumbs of bread 

 close to the hotel windows, and within a few feet of lookers-on. 



