60 coRviD.f;. 



Cornwall, wliicli escaped and stocked these rocks." No date 

 is mentioned, though apparently referring to his own time ; 

 but there is poetical authority at least, for the existence of 

 this bird at Dover at a much earlier date. Shakspeare, in his 

 description of the celebrated cliff which now bears his name, 

 says in reference to its height, — 



" The Crows and Choiighs that wing the midway air 

 Show scarce so gross as beetles." 



Beachy Head, and the high cliffs about Eastbourne, is 

 another locality for the Chough. I have seen it on the 

 highest part of the cliffs between Freshwater Gate and the 

 Needle Lighthouse in the Isle of Wight. Mr. Thomas 

 Bond tells me this bird inhabits GadclifT and Tyneham, in 

 the Isle of Purbeck. It is not uncommon in some parts of 

 Devonshire, as I learn from my friend Mr. George Mello, 

 In Cornwall, Dr. Borlase quoting Upton, who wrote about 

 the middle of the fifteenth century, says, the Cornish Chough 

 was so great a favourite in those days, that some of the most 

 ancient families bore these birds in their coat armour. The 

 Chough is noticed as peculiar to Cornwall by Dr. William 

 Turner in ] 544, by Childrey in 1G61, and by Merret in 1667. 

 I have seen specimens from Glamorganshire. In Ireland, 

 Mr. Thompson informs me, the Chough is found in certain 

 localities all round the coast. The Isle of Man has been 

 already noticed as a locality, particularly the southern part, 

 and the rock called the Calf of Man. Mr. ]\Iacgi]livray 

 mentions having met with this bird in Galloway and the 

 Island of Barry, one of the outer Hebrides. Dr. George 

 Johnston, in his address to the members of the Berwickshire 

 Naturalists' Club in September 1832, noticed that the 

 Chough breeds in the rocks between St. Abb's Head and 

 Fast Castle, and refers to this fact being distinctly mentioned 

 by Bishop Leslie in his history de Origine Scotorian, pub- 



