Choughs and Daws 193 



there is the undoubted derivation of the word from russus, 

 red ; the fact that pate means head, or the crown of the 

 head, while it is only the nape, or back of the neck, that 

 is grey in the jackdaw ; and the marvellous accuracy of 

 description displayed by Shakespeare, generally, to be taken 

 into account. 



The red legs and bill (from the latter it has been supposed 

 that Camden's reference to it, in 1586, as an incendiary that 

 sometimes ill requited the shelter it received in human 

 habitations, " for oftentimes it secretly conveieth fire sticks, 

 setting their houses a-fire," may have arisen) are the most 

 prominent distinctive marks of the Chough. Its character- 

 istic cry of chough-chough, and the more metallic ring of its 

 voice, generally, though otherwise somewhat resembling 

 that of the Jackdaw, also quickly arrest the attentive ear ; 

 while in flight its wings appear relatively much larger than 

 those of that bird. A person who claimed to have a special 

 acquaintance with the bird in North Wales informed me 

 that he could recognise almost with certainty a cliff inhabited 

 by Choughs from the castings left about the top of the rock, 

 and which, he said, always contained numerous fragments 

 of beetles. 



Jackdaws are not very numerous in the immediate 

 neighbourhood of Llanuwchllyn, in the breeding season, 

 being better looked after by the gamekeepers than is gener- 

 ally the case elsewhere. During winter, a large number 

 assemble with the Rooks, to roost at the rookery below Glan 

 Llyn, where 1 spent several evenings with the keeper, in 

 December and January, his chief object being to shoot some 

 of the Crows, which likewise resort thither to sleep with the 

 Rooks. Indeed, the idea that safety is to be found in 

 numbers was not shared by the Crows alone, for a few 

 Magpies, and two or three Jays, probably all that were in 

 residence in the neighbourhood at the time, also roosted 

 there, as did likewise a Sparrow-Hawk, besides a number of 

 Wood Pigeons, Stock Doves, Fieldfares, Redwings, and the 

 usual complement of small birds. It was most interesting 

 watching the arrival and behaviour of the different birds. 

 Those which carried no premium on their heads dropped in 



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