58 BRITISH BIBDS, THEIR EGGS AND NESTS. 



v. 



116, CHOUGH (Fregilus gracnlus). 



Cornish Chough, Red-legged Crow, Cornish Daw, Cornwall 

 Kae, Market-jew Crow, Chauk Daw, Hermit Crow, Cliff Daw, 

 &c. A bird which occurs more sparingly than it used to do. Its 

 abiding and building place is among the steep rocks which line so 

 many parts of the British coasts. In the Isle of Wight, in Man> 

 on the. Cornish shores, at Flamborou^h, in Berwickshire near St. 

 Abb's Head, it is still (or was tifl lately) known to breed. 

 "This bird," says Mr. Yarrell, "makes a nest of sticks lined with 

 wool and hair, in the cavities of high cliffs, or in old castles, or 

 church towers near the sea ; laying four or five eggs of a yellowish 

 white colour, spotted with ash-grey and light brown." Fig. 2, 

 plate V 



117. RAYEN (Corns corax]. 



Corbie, Corbie Crow, Great Corbie Crow. I dare say the 

 acquaintance of many of us with this fine bird is limited to an 

 introduction to some tame or pet Haven. In this district, where, 

 I believe, these birds abounded half a century since the rocky 

 cliffs of our moorland solitudes being so well suited to their 

 habits, I do not know that I have seen or heard one for the last 

 two or three years. Persecuted by the gamekeeper, sought after 

 for domestication, or their eggs taken for sale to the collector, they 

 are becoming very rare in many a part of the country where not long 

 since they were frequently seen. They build sometimes on old ruins 

 or craggy precipices, but oftener in a tree, piling nest after nest in 

 successive years upon the same bough, whence the chosen tree 

 soon comes to be called the " Raven-tree." One such accumulation 

 of nests 1 knew, as a boy, in Essex, and after a stiff climb succeeded 

 iii reaching it. I did it in jeopardy however, for the Ravens were 

 very bold, and every moment 1 expected they would assail me, in 

 spite of the short bludgeon I had suspended to my wrist. The 

 appearance below the nest of the farmer in whose fields the Raven- 

 tree grew, decided the question perhaps he frightened the Ravens 

 as well as threatened me ; perhaps they knew he came as their 

 protector anyhow I did not get my egg, although I had actually 

 had it in my hand. The nest is a great pile of sticks, lined with wool 

 and roots and felts of hair, and often has four or five eggs laid in 

 it, of a light green ground-shade, blotched and spotted with browns 

 of varying depth of colour, but some of them very dark. Fig. 3, 

 plate V. 



118. CROW (Corms corone). 



Carrion Crow, Corbie Crow, Flesh Crow, Gor Crow, Midden 

 Crow, Black Crow, Black-neb, Hoody. Another bird not nearly 



