THE PERCHING BIRDS. 187 



acorns whenever they can be had in sufficient quantity 

 and with little labour, but eggs are almost equally rel- 

 ished, and it will kill and eat young birds. The nest, 

 of twigs lined with grass, is placed in the forks of trees 

 from 10 to 20 feet from the ground, or even in bushes. 

 I took several nests in Germany not 3 feet from the 

 ground. Eggs, 4 to 6, i inch ; grey or greenish, speckled 

 with black. 



Recognised by the red of its legs and curved bill, as 

 also by its remarkable antics and cries in the air, the 

 Chough is not only not confined, as is some- 

 ugh ' times alleged, to the duchy after which it is 

 often called, but is even less common there than in many 

 other parts of these islands. It is popularly supposed that 

 the tourist has no sooner crossed the Brunei bridge west 

 of Plymouth than he will see this handsome bird on every 

 rock and tree. Nothing of the kind happens. I know 

 something of Cornwall, both of its coast and its interior, 

 and I have only seen four of these birds there in the course 

 of my wanderings. On the other hand, it is not uncommon 

 in parts of Devon, on Lundy Island, throughout the coast 

 districts of Wales and the Scottish isles, the west coast 

 of Ireland, and several places in the Channel Islands 

 whence the pugnacious jackdaws have not expelled it. 

 It breeds regularly on the Galloway coast. Indeed its 

 own tribe are its worst enemies, for, being the only one of 

 them not classed by the willing keeper under the head of 

 vermin, it is little troubled by any one save the collector 

 and his familiars. It is rarely found at any great dis- 

 tance from the coast, and it feeds chiefly on insects, less 

 on grain. Its nest, placed in cavities and holes in the 

 cliffs, is of twigs and heather lined with wool. Eggs, 3 

 to 5, i^ inch; greyish white, with brown spots. 



[The single Alpine Chough, a species from Central Eu- 

 rope, in which the bill is yellow, taken in Oxfordshire in 

 1 88 1, is commonly regarded as escaped from confinement.] 



