Passeres 87 



companies of Starlings. It is a south-eastern European 

 and west Asiatic species, occasionally flocking to Italy 

 and Hungary, which breeds in large colonies, that con- 

 stantly change their quarters, perhaps according to the 

 food-supply. A favourite article of diet is the migratory 

 locust, but other insects, berries, fruit and grain are 

 also eaten. The nests of grass and feathers are placed 

 in holes in old ruins, cliffs, and banks ; the eggs are 

 bluish white. It is a comparatively shy bird, with the 

 general habits of a Starling, and a harsh chattering cry. 



Family CORVIIXaD, or the Crow Tribe 



The glossy black Chough (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax), 

 with its brilliant red bill and legs, was evidently a much 

 commoner bird in Britain of old than at the present 

 day, when it barely holds its own on the cliffs of the 

 west and in Ireland. On the east the last nest appears 

 to have been recorded about the middle of the nine- 

 teenth century, at St Abb's Head in Berwickshire. It 

 rarely breeds inland in our country, but it does so in 

 many parts of the high mountains of western and 

 southern Europe, Asia, Abyssinia and north-west Africa. 

 It also inhabits the islands of the Mediterranean, the 

 Canaries and the coasts of west Europe, with the ex- 

 ception of Scandinavia. This shy bird is non-migratory 

 and may therefore be seen at any season actively hunting 

 for food on the ground, after the manner of the Starling, 

 but it has no special fancy for fruits. Occasionally it 

 utters notes resembling " chough-chough," but the 

 usual cry is clear and ringing ; the flight may be pro- 

 longed, but generally consists of circling movements 

 varied by tumbling. The nest, placed in some hole in 

 a steep slope, a cave or cliff-face, and often most 



