By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 



95 



styled the most perfect of the winged creation, and it has been 

 remarked that they seem to have received some peculiar property 

 from each order of birds, by which they stand in the centre of the 

 feathered kingdom, reflecting the characteristics of the whole, 

 being so well fitted for walking, equally powerful on the wing, in- 

 habitants of all climates, and capable of subsisting on all kinds of 

 food. Notwithstanding their frequent association with man they 

 are a vigilant cautious race, ever on the watch for an enemy, and 

 scenting danger from afar. 



Chough " (Fregilus graculus.) This is scarcely a true Crow, 

 but rather a link between the Starlings and Crows, partaking most 

 however, of the habits and appearance of the latter : It is a very 

 graceful elegant bird, and slender in form : its plumage of a glossy 

 bluish black, strongly contrasted with which are the beak, legs, 

 and feet, which are of a bright vermillion red or deep orange 

 colour : the beak is very long, slender, and considerably curved. 

 It is said never to perch on trees, but always on rocks, and Mon- 

 tagu, (who gives a full account of one of these birds which had been 

 tamed) says its inquisitive habits are equal to those of any Crow : 

 its food principally consists of insects, for reaching which in the 

 crevices of rocks its long sharp pointed slender bill is admirably 

 adapted. Its true habitat is among the lofty precipices on the sea 

 coast, or amid the rocks of inland countries, abounding in the 

 Swiss Alps, and in the Tyrol , where it frequents the loftier regions 

 far up among the glaciers : in England it is sparingly found on 

 some of our more rocky coasts, and is often styled the Cornish 

 Chough, from an erroneous impression that it was peculiar to that 

 County, though Shakspeare, with his usual wonderful knowledge 

 of nature, shows that he did not share in that mistake, for in de- 

 scribing the height of the cliff at Dover he says 



" The Crows and Choughs that wing the midway air 

 Show scarce as gross as beetles." 



"Wiltshire too is one of the few inland counties which has had its 

 stragglers of this species : Yarrell quoting from the Field Natur- 

 alist Magazine for August 1832, recounts how a Red-legged Crow 

 was killed on the Wiltshire downs, near the Bath Road between 



