CORVID.E. 



towers : it is made of sticks, and lined with wool and 

 hair. 



The Chough is certainly a much handsomer hird 

 than the Jackdaw, from which it may immediately 

 be distinguished by its beak and legs. The beak is 

 sealing-wax red ; the irides are of two colours, the 

 inner ring being red and the outer blue ; the eyelids 

 are red ; the whole of the plumage is a beautiful 

 glossy black, shot with purple ; the legs and toes 

 sealing-wax red ; claws black. The young birds of 

 the year are not quite so glossy in their plumage, 

 neither are the beak and legs quite so bright. 



The eggs of the Chough are not unlike some 

 specimens of those of the Jackdaw ; they are of a 

 yellowish white ground, fading in cabinet specimens 

 to white, spotted with dusky ash-grey and light 

 brown. 



RAVEN, Corvus corax. The Raven is resident 

 with us all the year, but, owing to the ravages of 

 gamekeepers and others, it is now growing very 

 scarce ; a few, however, may still be seen on the 

 Quantock and Brendon Hills, and I believe there 

 are a few pairs on the Mendips : there is also, in the 

 ' Zoologist ' for 1866, a notice of the death of a very 

 patriarchal Raven, one of a pair that lived and bred 

 for many years on Brean Down, near Weston- super- 

 Mare: the Rev. Murray A. Mathew, who noticed 

 the death of this bird, said it was the largest and 

 probably the oldest Raven he had ever seen. 



TJ 3 



