162 BIRDS OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



The Eev. H. B. Tristram lias also the following interesting 

 note on Pastor roseus, in a paper on the ornithology of Palestine, 

 contributed by him to the same journal for 1867: "The Kose- 

 coloured Pastor is not even a winter visitant, but occasionally 

 appears in vast flocks. It is well known to the natives as the 

 locust-bird, from its habit of preying on that destructive creature, 

 whose flights it generally follows. We found it in 1858, but not 

 in 1864. It has been known to breed in large colonies in Pales- 

 tine, but not for many years past. So at Smyrna, numbers of 

 nests were taken in 1858, while, since that year, it has rarely been 

 seen there. The behaviour of the Pastor in Syria reminds us of 

 that of the wax- wing further north, an erratic rather than a migra- 

 tory bird." 



INSESSORES. CORVID^E. 



CONIROSTRES. 



THE CHOUGH. 

 FREGILUS GRACULUS. 

 Cathag dhearg-chasach. 



THE history of the Chough as a Scottish bird presents some curious 

 facts which are not unworthy of notice. It appears to have been 

 at no distant date a much commoner bird than it now is, and to 

 have inhabited inland situations from which it has now utterly 

 disappeared. The Chough is mentioned by Don in his Forfarshire 

 list as a resident species in the mountains of Clova, and is like- 

 wise referred to by Pennant, who states that he found it " in the 

 farthest parts of Glenlyon and Achmore."* About the same 

 period it appears to have frequented the rocks at the Corra Linn 

 Falls on the Clyde; and twenty years afterwards, namely, in 1794, 

 the Rev. John Lapslie included the species in his list of birds 

 found in the parish of Campsie, in Stirlingshire. This accurate 

 writer states in his report, that the Chough, although a native of 

 the district, was even then becoming scarce, a pair or two only 

 being seen on the whole range of the Campsie Fells. " When we 

 do meet with them," says Mr Lapslie, " it is among the jackdaws, 

 of which there are a considerable number haunting our rocks." 

 The most recent instance of the bird being met with in an inland 



* Tour in Scotland, 2d Edit. 8vo, 1772. 



