THE CROW TRIBE 



H97 



precipices of dizzy cliffs and headlands, deemed impregnable by all but professional 

 cragsmen; but occasionally it rears its young among the broken pinnacles of some 

 ruined cathedral. The eggs are white in ground color, streaked with brown and 

 gray. The Isle of Man was formerly a great stronghold of the species, and when 

 Jardine visited that island in 1827, he found the "red-legged crows" most 

 abundant. Even in Britain the chough occasionally wanders from its maritime 



AND AI.PINE CHOUGH. 

 (One-third natural size.) 



haunts; and in Ladakh it dwells in the very heart of Asia. Not the least interest- 

 ing feature in the life history of this bird is the constancy with which individual 

 pairs endeavor to rear their young for many successive years in the same nesting 

 places. Choughs obtain much of their food on the grassy borders of the cliffs 

 which they frequent, as also in the adjacent fields, feeding either gregariously or in 

 single pairs. 



