ALPINE CHOUGH. 155 
blackish, the old birds having those parts covered with 
yellow or bright red. 
From a letter with which I have been favoured by 
Mr. Tuck, of Wallington, Herts., contaiming some val- 
uable remarks about the birds which he observed near 
Pau, in the south-west of France, I extract the following: 
—“The Alpine Chough is often seen among the moun- 
tains, sometimes in large flocks of nearly two hundred, 
as they were at the end of March in the Vallée d’ 
Ossau. They and the Red-legged Crow seem about 
equally distributed there.” 
This bird occurs frequently m Greece. The Count 
Von der Mihle, in his “Beitraege zur Ornithologie 
Griechenlands,” page 54, says:—‘The Alpine Chough 
is found in all the mountain range of Greece, as well 
in Lacedemonia as in Rumelia; it is also found in 
Illyria, where it abounds in the volcanic rocky caverns 
formed on the level land. These caverns became the 
dwelling-place of incredible flocks of Alpine Choughs, 
Pigeons, ( Columba livia,) and Jackdaws. I generally 
visited one of these caverns every morning, and when 
I looked into it there arose such a noise from the 
mingled voices of its various inhabitants, that I was 
positively deafened by it. ‘These caverns are filled with 
copsewood. If a stone were thrown in, the birds would 
rise by degrees and fly quickly away. One day a 
friend and I threw down a piece of rock, and no words 
can describe the astounding cries which rent the air.” 
Latham gave the following concise description of this 
bird:—“‘Size of a Jackdaw. Bill rather more elongated 
and yellow. Plumage wholly black; legs and claws 
black or yellow. Inhabits the Alps; has a sharp and 
disagreeable voice. Lives upon grain, and does much 
99 
damage to the harvest. Flesh pretty good eating. 
