70 CORVIDZ. 
Habits. The Red-billed Chough is found in summer up to 
16,000 feet and over, descending in winter to 5,000 feet or 
even lower. It is a gregarious sociable bird feeding together on 
the ground much like Rooks. They are noisy birds and baunt 
ani habitations and camps as w ell as wilder tracts. 
7? (49) Pyrrhocorax graculus. 
Tue YELLOW-BILLED CHOUGH. 
Corvus graculus Linn., Syst. Nat., ed. xii, p. 158 (1766) (Swiss Alps}. 
Pyrrhocorax alpinus. Blanf. & Oates, 1, p. 44. 
Fig. 19.—Head of P. graculus. 
Vernacular names. None recorded. 
Description. The whole plumage black with a slight gloss, 
more developed on wings and tail. 
Colours of soft parts. Iris brown to red-brown ; bill yellow; 
feet vermilion, the claws horny brown or black. 
Measurements. Total length about 420 mm.; wing 262 to 
287 mm.; tail about 180 mm.; culmen 25 to 30 mm.; tarsus 45 
to 48 mm. 
Distribution. South Europe and Central Asia. In India 
throughout the Himalayas from Kohat to Central Tibet and 
South-East Tibet. 
Nidification. Eggs have been taken in the Liddar Valley and in 
S.E. Tibet in April and May from nests placed in steep rocky 
cliffs, either in holes or in crevices in rocks. As a rule the 
breeding places are almost or quite inaccessible. The eggs differ 
in no way from those of the European bird. The ground-colour 
is avery pale yellowish grey, rarely with a cream tint, and the 
spots are of light brown and neutral tint, rather sparse as a rule 
but more numerous at the larger end. 
Habits. In summer it is found between 10,090 and 15,000 feet, 
coming down to 5,000 feet in winter. According to Stoliczka this 
species is very social and frec juently visits the camp of the 
traveller in Spiti and Ladakh, as it does also in Tibet. It is as 
familiar and noisy in the neighbourhood of villages and camping- 
anand as the common House-Crow is in India. In the breec ding 
season it to some extent deserts human habitations for the wilder 
cliffs. 
