EED-BILLED CHOUGH. 



PYRRHOCORAX GRACULUS {Linn.). 



CoYvus graculuSj Linn. S. N. i. p. 158 (1766) ; Naum. ii. 



p. 1]4. 

 Fregilus graculus, Macg. i. p, 587; Hewitson, i. p. 218. 

 Pyrrhocorax graculus, Yarr. ed. 4^ ii. p. 252 ; Dresser, iv. 



p. 437. 



Crave, French ; Stein-Krdhe, German ; Chova, Choya, 

 Grajilla, Spanish. 



The Chough, in spite of the high prices given for the 

 young birds, still holds its own on certain parts of our 

 coasts, its habit of nesting in the crannies and fissures 

 of precipitous sea-cliffs being greatly in favour of the 

 preservation of its species. This bird is almost exclu- 

 sively insectivorous, and its great beauty and harmless 

 habits should ensure to it the protection of man. 



Choughs reared by hand from the nest become 

 exceedingly tame, and once accustomed to any given 

 locality, may be allowed complete liberty ; indeed I have 

 found that they will not thrive for any length of time 

 unless permitted to roam at will. The flight of this 

 species is remarkably buoyant and graceful, and differs 

 remarkably from that of the true Crows. I never saw 

 any one of the many tame Choughs that have had their 

 liberty at Lilford alight on a tree or bush ; they kept 

 entirely to the top of the house and the stone balus- 

 trades that surround the flower-garden as perching and 

 roosting-places, and preferred the gravel-walks to the 

 turf for their promenades, and very frequently made use 

 of my head, arms, and shoulders as means of carriage to 

 their favourite bathing-place on a pebbly shelf of our 

 river-bank. 



