THE CHOUGH. 



FR^GILUS GRACULUS. 



Plumage black, with purple and green reflections ; beak and feet coral-red ; claws 

 black. Length sixteen inches; width thirty-two inches. Eggs yellowish 

 white, spotted with ash-grey and light brown. 



CONTINENTAL authors state that the bird which we call the 

 Chough or Red-legged Crow frequents the highest moun- 

 tain regions and the confines of perpetual snow, and that 

 hence it is sometimes known by the name of " Jackdaw of 

 the Alps." Like the rest of its tribe, it is omnivorous, 

 and lives in societies, like the common Jackdaw and Eook, 

 but rarely deserting, and then only when pressed by 

 hunger, the place of its birth. With us it is never seen 

 inland, confining itself to the rocky sea-coast, where it 

 builds its nest in inaccessible cliffs, and leads the same 

 kind of life with its sable relatives the Crows and Jack- 

 daws, though it never ventures, as they do, far from its 

 sea-side strongholds. The name Chough was probably in 



