192 Wild Life in Wales 



ment to the friendly manner in which it takes up its abode 

 in houses, blocking up chimneys, or any other convenient 

 crevice, with the mass of sticks it is so fond of collecting 

 together as a nest, often to the great inconvenience of the 

 rightful occupant of the dwelling. The Magpie is Pioden, 

 or Piogen, often merely Pi. The Chough most usually 

 shares with the Daw the names of Cog fran, sometimes 

 rendered Coegfran, and Cawci. In some places it is called 

 Palores, or Pulores ; but though a few pairs breed on the coast, 

 it is very rarely seen inland here. In 1906, I saw a clutch 

 of eggs, together with one of the parent birds, which were 

 said to have been obtained near Llangollen ; where Montagu, 

 a hundred years ago, recorded that a pair had bred for many 

 years previously on the ruins of the old castle. If it still 

 breeds there, it is at any rate scarce, and it seems a thousand 

 pities that so rare a bird should be molested in one of its 

 few remaining nesting stations in Britain. In some parts of 

 South Wales it still maintains a footing. 



The decrease of the Chough all over the country has 

 often coincided with a marked increase in the number of 

 Jackdaws, and by some people this has been looked upon as 

 cause and effect. Shakespeare's allusion to the " russet- 

 pated choughs " in Midsummer Night's Dream (Act III. 

 Sc. ii.) is so often commented upon, and referred to the 

 jackdaw, " because the head of the chough is quite black," 

 that a quotation from Professor Newton's note, in the fourth 

 edition of Yarrell, may be interesting to those who have 

 not read it : he says " The meaning of this epithet has 

 given rise to much ingenious discussion ; but the late Mr 

 E. T. Bennett, in 1835, doubtless supplied its true explana- 

 tion, when he suggested (Zool. Jour., v. p. 496) that the 

 correct reading is c russet-patted,' i.e. c red-footed ' (fatte 

 being a known equivalent of foot), and this view has been 

 adopted by Mr Aldis Wright in his recent edition of the 

 play (Clarendon Press Series, pp. 30, 112)." "Others main- 

 tain that russet did not necessarily mean red, but was 

 frequently used for grey, and accordingly that the Daw with 

 its grey head was intended." * Against the latter argument 

 1 Newton's Dictionary of Birds, p. 88. 



