CHOUGH 89 
the fringe was made of a few coarse grass and fine ling 
stalks, and a few root tufts, the usual foundation of sticks 
being altogether dispensed with.’ 
The male is very attentive to the sitting female, and Mr. 
Graves has observed him, after circling in front of the 
nesting place and calling repeatedly, settle on a rock below, 
where he was joined by his mate, who, drooping her wings 
like a young bird, received the food he brought. After 
incubation has commenced the hen sits very closely ; one 
did not leave the nest even after Mr. Graves had climbed 
up and looked at her sitting in the fissure at a distance of 
some three feet from his face. 
The eggs, from four to six, five being likely the usual 
number, are laid about the end of April. A second nest 
has been found in the identical hole from which the first 
eggs had been taken, probably three weeks earlier. 
In retired localities the Chough is not shy, and Mr. 
Graves and I have approached them quite near on the 
pastures. They are active, though hardly graceful, in their 
movements on the ground, and utter frequently their noisy 
calls while feeding. 
Though very sedentary birds, Choughs wander in winter 
to the northern sandhills, where a small flock has been 
repeatedly observed by Mr. Crellin and Mr. Keig in Ballaugh, 
and by myself in Michael. Away from the seashore, even 
in so narrow an island as Man, its occurrence is somewhat 
uncommon. I have seen a pair flying at a great height 
over one of our inland hills, and Mr. Graves has noticed a 
pair on the same mountain in April, but it is just possible 
that they may breed there. In some rocky glens in 
another locality others may frequently be seen, though I 
have no proof of their breeding there; the latter place, 
however, is within a mile of the sea. Mr. Graves has been 
told that they have bred in Glen Rushen, presumably in 
the high slate quarries there. In a certain inland valley 
