CHOUGH. 59 



Glamorganshire. In Ireland, Mr. Thompson informs me, 

 the Chough is found in certain localities all round the 

 coast. The Isle of Man has been already noticed as a 

 locality, particularly the southern part, and the rock called 

 the Calf of Man. Mr. Macgillivray mentions having met 

 with this bird in Galloway and the Island of Barry, one of 

 the outer Hebrides. Dr. George Johnston, in his address 

 to the members of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club in Sep- 

 tember 1832, noticed that the Chough breeds in the rocks 

 between St. Abb's Head and Fast Castle, and refers to this 

 fact being distinctly mentioned by Bishop Leslie in his his- 

 tory de Origine Scotorum, published in 1578, and it is in- 

 cluded also as a bird of Scotland by Sir Robert Sibbald 

 in his Scotia Illustrata, published in 1684 ; but further 

 north than Scotland I find no notice of it. 



The Chough is found in Guernsey, but not in Jersey. 

 It is found on most of the high ranges of mountains in 

 France and Switzerland, on the rocky country about Ar- 

 ragon in Spain ; it is found also in the Isle of Crete, and 

 in Egypt is said to inhabit the plains. It is found on the 

 mountains of Persia, in the countries between the Black 

 and the Caspian Seas, and north of the Caucasian range to 

 the southern part of Siberia ; it is also found on the Hima- 

 laya Mountains, B. Hodgson, Esq. includes it in his ca- 

 talogue of the Birds of Nepal, and Mr, Blyth has obtained 

 it in the vicinity of Calcutta. 



The plumage of this bird is uniformly black, glossed 

 with blue ; the irides of two circles and two colours, the 

 inner ring red, the outer ring blue ; the eyelids red ; the 

 inside of the mouth and the tongue yellow ; the wings reach 

 nearly to the end of the tail, shining with more metallic 

 lustre than the other parts of the plumage ; the beak, legs, 

 and toes, vermilion red ; the claws shining black. 



