CHOUGH. 55 



FROM the Starling and Pastor, the birds last described, 

 the transition to the true Crows, by the intervening 

 Chough, is easy and natural. The Crows generally, as 

 observed by Mr. Swainson, " exhibit the greatest perfec- 

 tion, and the most varied powers, with which nature has 

 invested this class of animals. This superiority consists, 

 not in the extraordinary development of any one parti- 

 cular organ or quality, but in the union of nearly all those 

 powers which have been separately assigned to other fa- 

 milies. This perfection is best exemplified by looking to 

 the economy of the ordinary Crows. In every climate, 

 habitable to man, these birds are found. They are as well 

 constructed for powerful flight, as for walking with a firm 

 and stately pace on the earth. They feed indiscrimi- 

 nately on animals or on vegetables ; arid when pressed by 

 hunger, refuse not carrion : hence their smell is remarka- 

 bly acute. They are bold, but wary ; live in common 

 societies, and possess great courage. When domesticated 

 they evince a power of imitating the human voice nearly 

 equal to that of the Parrot ; while their cunning, pilfering, 

 and hoarding dispositions, are all symptoms of greater in- 

 telligence than is found in most other families of birds." 



The Cornish Chough, for which the genus Fregilus was 

 established by Cuvier, is readily distinguished from the 

 true Crows by the peculiar form of its beak. In this 

 country the Chough is not a common bird, and is besides 

 almost exclusively confined to the sea coast, where it in- 

 habits the highest and most inaccessible portions of rocks 

 or cliffs, about which it walks securely by means of its 

 strong legs, toes, and claws. A bird kept by Colonel Mon- 

 tagu some years in his garden, was never observed to walk 

 upon the grass by choice ; and it required a strong tempt- 

 ation to induce him to step off the gravel. 



