Ill 

 CHOUGH 



HIS rare and local bird is to be found breeding in 

 one or two haunts in the south-west of England, 

 on the Welsh coast, and more commonly in Ireland, 

 but it is not my intention to indicate too exactly 

 the locality. 



The Chough chooses a wild home. On the steep western cliffs 

 which have been beaten and lashed by the heavy Atlantic billows, 

 we find him. I have seen several of his haunts, but one of them, 

 on the northern Cornish coast, was certainly the most interesting. 

 When I first found the site of his nest, a tearing north-west gale 

 was driving in great towering waves, which broke against the black 

 cliffs with a mad fury, drowning even the noise of the wind. The 

 splashing white foam found its way into every crevice, smashing 

 smaller rocks, thundering into the green caves with a mighty roar, 

 and throwing in large stones as though they were marbles. Then 

 with a dash and a frothing, the seething water rolled back slowly, 

 as if the powerful, boiling, and whirling terror had been suddenly 

 tamed or subdued, until another great heaving giant met it, and 

 again helped it on. 



Once more it thundered, in a deafening, confounding chorus, 

 on the broken shore. 



For countless ages this wild coast has withstood this onslaught ; 

 sometimes the sea gains a point in this great battle of Nature, and 



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