CHOUGH 
373 
white patch on each wing against the jet-black of 
the rest of the plumage, and at the same time give 
vent to a series of the most grating, rasping discords 
that ever it lay in a bird's power to utter. But among 
these even as they fly you will hear an occasional 
flute-like whistle through the din, and as they reach 
the boughs of the trees where they perch and hop 
about, the whistling predominates and makes an 
effective and not at all unmelodious chorus. Clearly 
this is the normal " song," the other but the alarm- 
note. 
Choughs are very local ; they keep to the same 
spot all through the year, and from one year to an- 
other. And always that spot is near water of some 
kind, be it only puddles where the bush road goes 
through a bit of swampy land, for the Choughs must 
have mud for their nests. 
There is hardly a forest-area in the district where 
a family or clan of Choughs may not be found ; I 
have notes of such at Lethbridge, Anakie, You Yangs, 
near Ocean Grove, Anglesea, and Airey's Inlet. 
The wing-beats in flight are inclined to be quick, 
and are at regular intervals without undulation. 
Flights are always short and merely from the ground 
to a tree or one tree to the next. 
The nest is placed at a considerable height from 
the ground, depending, of course, on the kind of trees 
available, but not usually lower than 30 feet. It is 
always in a eucalypt ; I have seen nests in messmate, 
white-gum, and blue-gum. It may shortly be de- 
