CHOUGH 87 
place on the east coast, of a somewhat different kind. ‘On 
May 10th (1895) I found a nesting place in a part of the 
island where I should not have suspected the present exist- 
ence of the Chough—in a stretch of low but much-broken 
rocky coast, where the cliffs are probably never more than 
fifty feet high. A few Herring Gulls were nesting on 
flattish places among these rocks, and heathery and ferny 
ground, varied by some little “orchards” or patches of 
trees, came down to their edges. Near at hand was a burn- 
foot with a shingly beach, and the place commanded a wide 
view of the headlands and sea, and the opposite mainland 
mountains. The nesting place was a rough gully, with 
sides so close together, and in places so overhanging, as 
almost to form a cave. The water never leaves its mouth, 
and its interior is blocked by great boulders wedged 
between slippery tide-washed ledges; altogether as in- 
accessible a spot as could be found in so low a coast. The 
nest was evidently among the crevices in the dry upper 
part of the gully, which was here very narrow, but so dark 
and ragged-edged that, though I several times visited the 
place, and frequently saw one or both birds come out of 
the chasm, I could never make out its exact situation, 
either from the top of the cliff or the bottom of the gully. 
The hen bird, after being roused from the nest, sat on a 
wooden fencing on the brow above, uttering, with opened 
wings and shaking body, its wild explosive cry of 
“ kee-aw.”’ 
A nest on the Calf in May 1901 was in a hole in the 
roof of a long dark cavern which formed the end of a 
coast gully (Zool., 1901, p. 470);.and I have heard of 
Choughs nesting in a kind of little chamber which opened 
some fifteen feet up a very low cliff above a shore of 
boulders, and which was robbed by the help of a ladder. 
Choughs nested for years, and likely still do so, in the 
