CHAPTER V. 



CHOUGHS. 



TIME was when the Chough* is said to have 

 inhabited almost all our maritime cliffs. Now, 

 however, to be found in any numbers it must be 

 followed to the wild, rocky littoral of the Green 

 Isle. The Green Isle or rather parts of it must 

 now be reckoned as the bird's head-quarters, though 

 the Chough still occurs, albeit in far smaller num- 

 bers and much more scattered, on the sea-cliffs of 

 Cornwall, Cambria, and the west of Scotland, as 

 well as inland in certain mountainous Welsh 

 retreats. 



To assign a satisfactory reason for the banish- 

 ment of the species from so many an ancient 

 fastness, affords mere guess-work. By some it is 

 held and with tolerable fairness that the ruffianly 

 Daw has been responsible for the expulsion of its 

 aristocratic cousin ; by others, that the princely 

 Peregrine has played hard and fast with not a 

 few. Nevertheless, these two factors alone are 

 not commensurate with the wholesale thinning of 

 the Chough's ranks, and, wonderful to tell, man 

 may take no blame, so that it would almost seem 



Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax (L.) 



