CORVIDZ. 231 
THE CHOUGH. 
PyRRHGCORAX GRACULUS (Linnzus). 
The Chough is not only a local but also, apparently, a very 
capricious species ; localities formerly inhabited by it being some- 
times abandoned, without any assignable reason. In England at 
the present day it is not known to breed to the east of the cliffs of 
Dorsetshire, while westward as far as Cornwall its distribution is 
imegular. In North Devon there were formerly many small 
colonies; but in 1887 I found that the bird had almost disappeared 
from Lundy Island, where about forty pairs used to nest, owing in 
a great measure to the Peregrine, which, in default of Pigeons, is 
very partial to Choughs—especially the young. On the sea-cliffs 
and in some inland localities of Wales it is not rare, while it is still 
resident in the Isle of Man. In Scotland it has long ago quitted 
St. Abb’s Head, and has almost vanished from the Wigtownshire 
coast and western mainland, but it breeds on Islay, Jura, and other 
islands of the Inner Hebrides, up to Skye, and was obtained in 
September 1896 near Stornoway; though of accidental occurrence 
on the east side and inland. In Ireland it nests along the rocky 
coasts and sometimes in the mountains of the south, west and north. 
