22 ALLEN'S NATURALISTS LIBRARY. 



THE TRUE CHOUGHS. GENUS GRACULUS. 



Graculus, Koch, Syst. Baier, Zool., p. 91 (1816). 



Type, G. graculus (Linn.). 



The following species is the only representative of this 

 genus : 



THE RED-BILLED CHOUGH. GRACULUS GRACULUS. 



Corous graculus, Linn., S. N., i., p. 158 (1766). 

 Fregilus grtculus, Macg., Br. B., i., p. 587 (1837). 

 Pyrrhocorax graculus, Dresser, B. Eur., iv., p. 437, pi. 251, 



fig. i (1875); Newt, ed., Yarr., ii., p. 252 (1878); 



B. O. U. List Br. B., p. 66 (1883); Seeb., Hist. Br. B.,- 



i-> P- 57 8 ( l88 3); Saunders, Man., p. 221 (1889); Lilford, 



Col. Fig. Br. B., pt. x. (1889). 

 Graculus graculus, Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus., Hi., p. 146 



(1877). 



Adult Male. Purplish black ; greenish on the wings and 

 tail ; bill deep vermilion ; legs vermilion ; iris brown. Total 

 length, 15 inches; culmen, 2'i ; wing, 12*0; tail, 87 ; tarsus, 

 2-3. 



Sexes alike in plumage. 



Young. Dusky black, without the gloss of the adults ; bill 

 and legs orange-yellow. 



Range in the British Islands. Now restricted to certain 

 localities in the South-western counties of England, parts of 

 Wales, the Isle of Man, but still by no means rare in some 

 localities in Ireland. It also occurs in some of the Western 

 Islands of Scotland as far north as Skye. Its habitat is 

 now almost entirely restricted to the sea-coast, but it was 

 formerly found inland, as it is now on the Continent of Europe 

 and the mountains of Asia, and the Himalayas. Occurs in 

 the Channel Islands. 



Range outside the British Islands. An inhabitant of the cliffs 

 and mountains, the Chough is found distributed over the 

 countries on both sides of the Mediterranean, in Portugal, and 

 Western France, but it does not range far to the north on the 

 Continent of Europe, its limit being given by Mr. Seebohm as 



