CORNISH CHOUGHS. 101 



your feet, or perch on a gate, and follow at your bidding- ; and 

 then, if startled by a stranger, to see them fly off with a nervous 

 scream, as though they had never seen a human being before ! 



Living thus, and at liberty by day, of course these birds 

 will support themselves, finding their natural food in the way of 

 small beetles, woodlice, earwigs, centipedes, &c. ; but wholly 

 refusing slugs, worms, and snails. Like hawks, and owls, and 

 crows, they throw up casts of the indigestible carapaces of the 

 beetles, &c. 



A very favourite feast are grubs of the crane-fly, which 

 they extract from the grass in spring ; first picking at some 

 selected spot, and probing with closed bill to make a hole (walking 

 round the while, and working with a twisting motion until the 

 hole is large enough to admit the beak), and then nipping the 

 grub, which appears to be beneath at the exact distance of two 

 inches from the surface. It is surprising the number of grubs 

 which will thus be secured in a small patch of newly mown 

 lawn. The only supplementary food supplied them, consists of 

 some scraps of meat, mixed with bread, potatoes, and gravy, 

 and the whole chopped finely ; and this is more than they often 

 care to pick at, though it serves as a kind of lure to "slock" 

 them into their shed at night, and thereby prevent their 

 becoming completely insubordinate. They have three notes, 

 (a) the usual call note, clear and ringing, and perfectly distinct 

 from that of a jackdaw; (b) the cry of alarm, which is the same 

 sound as the former only pitched in a higher key, emitted in 

 rapid succession when a hawk is viewed above head, or when the 

 chough is startled by a sudden noise ; (c) a harsh, chiding, 

 repeated sound, as of an animal in some pain, made use of 

 when a rat or cat is perceived skulking in the grounds, or when 

 one of the choughs is seized by the hand, and another resents 

 the insult. Always noisy, always active, in boisterous spirits, 

 they have such exuberant energy that frequent sham fights, 

 perilously near the real thing, are wont to take place ; occasion- 

 ally when feeding, or walking together, one will suddenly turn 

 on his back and put himself in fighting trim, while his opponent 

 sets to and attacks him, with beak and deliberate grip of claw, 

 and with every evidence of determined hostility: the next 



