2958 Tue Zoo_ocist—Marcn, 1872. 
although on the constant look-out, has never had the satisfaction of 
seeing an eagle on wing. He was once driving with a large party 
in a char-ad-banc through Glencoe. A lady present felt that the 
sight of an eagle was necessary to complete the wildness of the 
scene, and greatly complained that the king of birds was not 
visible. At last the driver, who seemed vexed that anything should 
be wanting from the scenery he was exhibiting, and unwilling that 
the tourists should go away and bring a slur upon the reputation 
of the country as without eagles, pointed with his whip to a kestrel 
hovering over a high pinnacle of rock, and gruffly said, “ There’s 
an eagle.” As all our party were greatly delighted we felt bound 
to hold our tongue, and not betray the driver or dispute his 
extemporised eagle. 
While the largest of our raptorial birds is fast disappearing from 
that part of the United Kingdom with which it is most associated 
under the agency of a ceaseless persecution, another interesting 
bird is annually decreasing in numbers, through causes which are 
connected with the destruction of the Falconide. Of the chough 
Mr. Gray re-echoes the report which reaches us from all stations 
which were once tenanted by it,—that it has either entirely dis- 
appeared or is only observed in diminishing numbers.. The 
explanation of this would seem to be that the chough is a less 
persistent species than the jackdaw. This last noisy and impudent 
thief is everywhere multiplying now that the hawks have been 
exterminated which used to keep him down, and is fast driving 
out the chough. We have ourselves noticed that the jackdaw is 
considered bad company and avoided by his red-legged congener, 
and the unlimited increase of the distasteful rival has proved too 
much for him. The chough may probably (although we doubt it) 
sometimes go to roost with the crow, but he certainly, under the 
extremest straits of poverty, would avoid such a strange bedfellow 
as the jackdaw. Butif the chough is ceasing out of the land, there 
is evidence that the wood pigeon is becoming too familiar, After 
what Mr. Gray, upon the authority of Lord Haddington and others, 
has recorded of the voracity of the ring dove, few will be disposed 
to question the great injury which this bird inflicts upon agricul- 
turists. In many parts of Scotland ring doves have increased in 
an extraordinary manner. 
“In East Lothian the wood pigeon is perhaps more numerously met 
with than elsewhere in Great Britain, yet it is not more than eighty years 
