9668 Birds. 



Rock Pipit. — This and the meadow pipit were the oidy two repre- 

 sentatives of the genus Anthiis which we saw, the former apparently 

 the commoner of the two. In its actions the rock pipit puts one much 

 in mind of its congener the tree pipit. I frequently saw one of these 

 birds rise into the air and sing while ascending, after the manner of 

 the tree pipit, and then, like that bird, descend again with wings 

 almost motionless and nearly meeting over its back. We shot a few 

 specimens, but they were not in very good plumage. We also obtained 

 several nests, but in all save one the eggs were so much incubated 

 that it was impossible to blow them. 



Linnet. — We were rather surprised to find linnets still in flocks in 

 the middle of .May, for in previous years we had found the birds paired 

 and the female sitting by the 2nd of that month. They frequented the 

 downs among the furze, sometimes flying over the edge of the cliffs, 

 and returning to alight wiihin a few yards of us. Tlie male birds were 

 in very beautiful plumage, having the entire breast and top of the head 

 bright crimson. 



IStarlinij. — The starling, although usually building under eaves or in 

 holes of trees, here nests in fissures of the cliff, and those that we 

 observed were very busy all day carrying food to their young. 



ChoiKjh. — This handsome bird, although still not uncommon in some 

 parts of Wales and Cornwall, has certainly become rare along the 

 South Coast of England, and we could hardly have been surprised, 

 although we should have been much disappointed, had we visited the 

 Dorset cliffs without seeing one. We were fortunate enough, how- 

 ever, not only to see the birds, but also two of their nests. The 

 chough, when on the wing, if at too great a distance to distinguish the 

 bill, may be readily known from the jackdaw, the only bird for which 

 it could be mistaken, by its rounder wings and more measured flight; 

 its note, too, is sharper and more distinct. Judging from the only two 

 instances in which we were enabled to make any observation, the 

 chough selects for its breeding-place a crevice in a cliff, some eighty 

 or one hundred feet below its summit, where the soil is crumbling and 

 the rock above impends. Generally the crevice extends inwards for 

 some little distance, and perhaps turns to the right or left. On this 

 account it is not only a difficult nest to find, unless the bird is seen to 

 enter the crevice from below, but it is also one of the most difficult to 

 take from its almost inaccessible position : the natural daring of the 

 fishermen, however, further stimulated by the promise of a reward, 

 generally overcomes sucli difficulties. On two occasions, when in a 

 boat under the cliffs, a chough passed wiihin shot, but reflecting that 



