THE CHOUGH. 135 



swallowed entire, but when a large beetle or cockchafer 

 is secured the bird holds it in the feet, and pecks at it 

 until it is devoured. The Chough is of'tener seen on the 

 sea-shore than anywhere else, where it frequents the highest 

 cliffs and rocks, walking over them with great ease and 

 confidence, its toes and claws being admirably adapted for 

 this purpose. The disposition of the Chough is rather 

 a curious combination: it is extremely inquisitive and 

 thievish, yet very wary, cautious, and shy. Judging 

 from the accounts of those persons who have kept and 

 watched them, their strong inquisitiveness and instinctive 

 caution are in a perpetual state of opposition, the undecided 

 actions of the birds being consequently at times almost 

 ludicrous. 



As already hinted, old towers, church steeples, and the 

 holes in cliffs are the spots generally selected by the 

 Chough in which to build its nest. It is composed of 

 sticks, and lined with wool and hair. The eggs are foui 

 or five in number, of a pale yellowish-white colour, spotted 

 with ash grey and light brown, and about one-and-a-half 

 inch in length. The parents are very watchful in guard- 

 ing their nest from intruders. 



The length of the Chough is sixteen or seventeen 

 inches ; it is of an uniform black colour, with a glossy 

 bluish tinge ; the iris has two circles, the inner one red, 

 the outer blue ; the beak is of a brilliant red, yellow in the 

 inside, and about two inches long ; the wings reach nearly 

 to the end of the tail, and have a more shining lustre than 

 the rest of the plumage. In both sexes the legs are red, 

 and the claws black and strongly hooked. 



The Chough is said to be found in France, Spain, 

 Switzerland, and Crete, and may be met with in Egypt 



