Il8 VARIOUS CHOUGHS. 



Prince and Poins, meet to rob the travellers at Gadshill, 

 Falstaff calls the victims " fat chuffs," probably from their 

 strutting about with much noise. 



In the Winter's Tale, the rogue Autolycus appears as 

 a pedlar, and while drawing the attention of those around 

 him to his wares, he takes the opportunity to pick their 

 pockets. His power of persuasion was so great that, as 

 he himself said, — 



" They throng who should buy first, as if my trinkets 

 had been hallowed, and brought a benediction to the 

 buyer : by which means I saw whose purse was best in 

 picture ; and what I saw, to my good use I remem- 

 bered." 



He proceeds to compare them to choughs whom he had 

 allured by his chaff, and says : — 



" In this time of lethargy, I picked and cut most of 

 their festive purses ; and had not the old man come in 

 with a whoobub against his daughter and the king's son, 

 and scared my choughs from the chaff, I had not left a 

 purse alive in the whole army." — Winter's Tale, Act iv. 

 Sc. 3. 



The word " chough,'' it appears, was not always 

 intended to refer to the bird with red legs and bill, as 

 we may infer from the following passage in O'Flaherty's 

 "West or H'lar Connaught, 1684," p. 13 :— " I omit other 



