THE CHOUGH. 165 



The Chough is still found on the west coast of Skye, where it 

 breeds in limited numbers. Dr Dewar has three eggs in his col- 

 lection from that locality, which may be considered its most 

 northern limit. These birds have probably come from Barra, in 

 the Outer Hebrides, where, though now unknown, the species 

 was found about forty years ago by Macgillivray, who states in 

 his account of the Long Island, published in the Edinburgh Jour, 

 of Nat. Greog. Science, vol. ii., p. 323, that it then frequented the 

 southern extremity of the range, but was not met with elsewhere. 

 In like manner, many of the smaller islands within the circle of 

 the inner group have been deserted within the last thirty years. 

 It is no longer known in Tyree, Coll, Rum, or Canna, nor does it 

 now frequent the island of Lismore, or the district of Appin, where 

 flocks existed about the beginning of the present century. It is 

 doubtful if it breeds in Mull or Jura, and it has not bred in Arran 

 for the last seven years. One of the Duke of Hamilton's keepers 

 shot the only pair on that island in 1863, and I have been assured 

 that no Choughs have been seen there since. 



On the south coast of Ayrshire * and along the coast line of Wig- 

 townshire, extending to the Mull of Galloway, Burrow Head, and 

 the borders of Kirkcudbrightshire, the Chough, although much 

 reduced in numbers, is still sparingly met with, though in some 

 spots where flocks might have been seen twenty years ago, a solitary 

 pair at most remain. The sable couple may be noticed passing 

 their time at intervals during the winter months, dozing on their 

 high perch outside the mouth of some cave, pleased with the roar 

 of the restless waters below, or perhaps hushed by the dull sound 

 of the cold sea heaving one swelling wave after another into the 

 hollowed chambers of the rock. But in the summer time when 

 their caves are resorted to by other birds such as kestrils, jackdaws, 

 swallows, and cormorants, and while the cliffs themselves are 

 white with snowy gulls and orderly guillemots, the Chough 

 becomes the life of the colony a light-hearted gossiping fellow, 

 and an elegant dandy among the "craws and kays," soaring lightly 

 in wide circling turns over the busy multitudes, and cheering them 

 all with his lively watchword. Being the only land bird included 



* In this county stragglers are occasionally seen as far north as Ballantrae. 

 Mr Anderson informs me that, about forty years ago, it frequented the cliffs at 

 Culzean Castle. A specimen shot there in 1824 is still preserved. 



