BIRDS. 



145 



(Solway), but that I will leave to Mr. Service to ascertain more 

 fully about when he comes to deal with that area. Going now much 

 further north, we have one mention of the Chough at an inland 

 locality, viz. on the Trailligil Burn, in Assynt (see our volume on the 

 North-west Highlands). Before speaking of the reasons I have 

 for rejecting almost all such accounts, I will first refer to Mr. J. 

 Buchanan's paper in the Proc. Royal Phys. Soc. (vol. vii. pp. 94-101). 



Mr. Buchanan takes the hitherto generally accepted view that 

 the Chough was a common inhabitant of inland localities through 

 many parts of Scotland. I do not deny that it might have been, 

 but I can find no sufficiently definite certainties relating to the 

 statement. And I will now proceed to show what I think is good 

 reason for rejecting at least the most of such accounts. 



I believe, in fact, that many of these records are due to a very 

 well-known and simple Scottish w^ord which is pronounced exactly as 

 a Scotsman would pronounce Chough — Chough not being a Scottish 

 word at all. For explanation I refer my readers to the accompanying 

 footnote. 1 



I am under the strong suspicion — if not the almost certainty — 

 that Pennant and Don following and quoting partly, were misled by 

 this pronunciation, and others at much later dates. Lapslie's note 

 may have been from personal observation, or only from being told by 

 local persons that " Shuchs " occurred in the Campsie Fells. Indeed, 

 a local would-be authority writing in a local paper once spoke of a 

 spot (the Sheugh Glen on my own ground) as a former haunt of the 

 bird. A more unlikely place could hardly be found anywhere. 



Corra Lynn of Clyde is another inland locality quoted as a 

 former haunt of the Chough by Mr. Eobert Gray (Birds of the West 

 of Scotland). 



Suppose we admitted all these old records, then it would almost 

 seem that we must include the Chough amongst those decadent 

 species which appear to have retreated westwards, and long since 

 abandoned inland localities and our eastern districts for the western 

 coast-lines and islands, and for the most part taken up their later 



^ "Sheugh," lit. "a furrow, or ditch" (Jamieson), but also, as I know, applied to a 

 small glen, or deep cut in a hillside or steep slope or brae-face. 



" Sheugh " is pronounced exactly as a Scotsman would pronounce the English word 

 Chough — thus, Shuch, i.e. soft, and not hard as in Shuc^% as a Cockney would say 

 it. Similarly, Ohuch, i.e. having both the first ch and the terminal gh soft, not Tchuff\ 

 as Chough is pronounced in English. "Sheugh" is pronounced both as I have given 

 it above, and also longer, thus — sheuch, soft. 



K 



