268 BRITISH: SEA’ BIRDS. 
elsewhere in the British Islands it nests freely. In 
many Scottish and Irish districts it makes its nest 
on a sea-cliff. This resembles that of the Raven or 
the Jackdaw, being made of sticks, twigs, turf, 
and stalks, lined with moss, wool, and other soft 
materials. Five eggs are usually laid, green of 
various shades in ground colour, spotted and 
blotched with olive-brown and gray. The note 
of the Hooded Crow is a hoarse £va, modulated 
in various ways. 
CHOUGH. 
For reasons which have been variously assigned, 
the present species, the Pyrrhocorax graculus of 
ornithologists, has now become one of the rarest 
and most local of British birds. Once fairly 
common, not only in certain inland localities, but 
on the sea-girt cliffs, many of its colonies have now 
become deserted, It is a bird of the rock-bound 
coast, easily recognized by its blue-black plumage 
and long, curved, red bill. It is not necessary here 
to indicate the places where colonies still exist. 
The Chough is a gregarious bird, and many of 
its habits resemble those of the Jackdaw or the 
Starling. Its flight is often curiously erratic, the 
bird, after rising a little way, dropping again with 
wings closed. Upon the ground it runs quickly, its 
bright red legs and feet being conspicuous. The 
note is very like that of the Jackdaw, a chuckling 
or cackling chow-chow; hence the bird’s name of 
Chough, which, by the way, is often used with the 
