326 PERCHING BIRDS. 



of the English coast. Formerly this species was a comparatively common bird on 

 the western coasts of Great Britain and Ireland, nor was it entirely a coast-loving 

 one, since individual pairs nested in the recesses of limestone precipices inland, such 

 as Whitbarrow Scaur in Westmoreland. The chough has, however, latterly de- 

 creased in numbers in most of its strongholds, partly owing to human interference ; 

 although there is some reason to suppose that its extermination may be partially 

 accounted for by the special predilection of the peregrine falcon for its flesh. The 

 chough nests in the spring of the year, breeding principally among the precipices 

 of dizzy cliffs and headlands, deemed impregnable by all but professional cragsmen ; 

 but occasionally it rears its young among the broken pinnacles of some ruined 

 cathedral. The eggs are white in ground-colour^ streaked with brown and grey. 

 The Isle of Man was formerly a great stronghold of the species, and when Jardine 

 visited that island in 1827, he found the "red-legged crows" most abundant. 

 Even in Britain the chough occasionally wanders from its maritime haunts; and 

 in Ladak it dwells in the very heart of Asia. Not the least interesting feature in 

 the life-history of this bird is the constancy with which individual pairs endeavour 

 to rear their young for many successive years in the same nesting-places. Choughs 

 obtain much of their food on the grassy borders of the cliffs which they frequent, 

 as also in the adjacent fields, feeding either gregariously or in single pairs. 



. Amongst the Alps and other mountain-ranges of Central Europe 



' the red-billed chough is in many cases replaced by the Alpine 

 chough (6r. alpinus) which has a yellow instead of a red beak, and is somewhat 

 smaller in dimensions. Mr. Fowler says that the Alpine chough is the character- 

 istic corvine of the Alps, as it also is of the Apennines ; and its lively chatter, 

 breaking suddenly on vast and silent solitudes, recalls to memory the familiar 

 jackdaw. The Alpine chough nests amongst the crags of its native precipices ; the 

 eggs being four or five in number, and in colour white, varied with dirty yellow 

 mottlings. This chough is a recognised article of commerce, and as such is 

 frequently imported to Europe as a cage-bird. 



Chough- We now come to a small but interesting group of birds, of some- 



Thrushes, what doubtful affinity, though probably not distantly related to the 

 choughs, from which they are at once distinguished by the relative shortness of 

 their wings, which fall short of the tip of the tail by more than the length of the 

 metatarsus. They are further distinguished by the possession of a peculiar style 

 of coloration, and also by their inferior size. Comparatively little is known of the 

 habits of the chough-thrushes, these birds being found only in certain parts of 

 Central Asia, and having rarely come under the notice of field-naturalists. The 

 whole of the four species known to science inhabit desert regions and sterile 

 plains. Of these the first discovered was Pander's chough - thrush (Podoces 

 panderi), and although many years have elapsed since its existence became known, 

 it is still very rare in collections. Nor is this surprising, since its home is the 

 lower Oxus, and the inaccessible deserts of Turkestan. It is not a gregarious 

 species, nor does it associate with other kinds of birds, living for the most part in 

 couples, which presumably pair for life, and constantly associate together, sub- 

 sisting upon the insects and other food to be found in the vicinity of their favourite 

 sandhills. Unlike its congener, the plain-coloured chough-thrush, the present 



