CHOUGHS 77 



hole in some detached lump has to be explored, 

 the upper mandible is inserted into it to act as a 

 prise, while, to steady it, the lump itself is often 

 tenaciously grasped by the foot, and generally the 

 left one, as is the custom of hawks, owls, and 

 parrots, amongst others. Food is variously pro- 

 cured amongst scrubby heather, from the rocks, 

 the shore, from any plots of dubious tillage within 

 reasonable hail of the bird's haunts, as well as 

 from meadows. Those writers who aver that this 

 species never alights on grass have only too 

 evidently relied on their imagination. How unsafe 

 a word is '* never," and, for that matter, 

 always ! ' ' 



At all seasons Choughs are frolicsome. Where 

 the bird is still (happily) plentiful, it is nothing 

 unusual to see from thirty to fifty besporting 

 themselves above the cliffs. Their antics are then 

 full of interest. As they all wheel yet each pair 

 keeps rather apart one suddenly tumbles over on 

 its back like a Raven, another spins over from side 

 to side, while a third, rising obliquely for thirty 

 or forty yards, dives rapidly down again. In the 

 breeding-season some of their play is peculiarly 

 diverting. Witness this pair close to their nest 

 dashing about low down over the slopes, or along 

 the face, of the cliff. Their flight is far quicker 

 than its wont, they twist madly and erratically about, 

 as if for the nonce bereft of their senses : again they 

 climb high into the heavens and sail round each 



