CHOUGH. 59 



Feet strong ; toes four, three in front, one behind, tarsus longer than the 

 middle toe, the outer toe united at its base to the middle one; claws strong, 

 and very much curved, that of the hind toe much the largest. 



FROM the Starling and Pastor, the birds last described, 

 the transition to the true Crows, by the intervening Chough, 

 is easy and natural. The Crows generally, as observed by 

 Mr. Swainson, " exhibit the greatest perfection, and the 

 most varied powers, with which nature has invested this 

 class of animals. This superiority consists, not in the ex- 

 traordinary development of any one particular organ or 

 quality, but in the union of nearly all those powers which 

 have been separately assigned to other families. This per- 

 fection is best exemplified by looking to the economy of 

 the ordinary Crows. In every climate, habitable to man, 

 these birds are found. They are as well constructed for 

 powerful flight, as for walking with a firm and stately 

 pace on the earth. They feed indiscriminately on animals 

 or on vegetables ; and when pressed by hunger, refuse not 

 carrion : hence their smell is remarkably acute. They are 

 bold, but wary ; live in common societies, and possess great 

 courage. When domesticated they evince a power of imi- 

 tating the human voice nearly equal to that of the Parrot ; 

 while their cunning, pilfering, and hoarding dispositions, 

 are all symptoms of greater intelligence than is found in 

 most other families of birds." 



The Cornish Chough, for which the genus Fregilus was 

 established by Cuvier, is readily distinguished from the 

 true Crows by the peculiar form of its beak. In this 

 country the Chough is not a common bird, and is besides 

 almost exclusively confined to the sea coast, where it in- 

 habits the highest and most inaccessible portions of rocks 

 or cliffs, about which it walks securely by means of its 

 strong legs, toes, and claws. A bird kept by Colonel 

 Montagu some years in his garden, was never observed to 



