160



S. Porter—Choughs



feed on marine life. The flight is much more light and buoyant than

that of a Jackdaw and the large square tail seems to be fastened very

loosely to the body as it pivots from side to side like that of a Kite.

The call is very much like that of a Jackdaw, though some naturalists

say it is very different.


Sometimes it was possible to have within sight at one time six

out of the eight British representatives of the Crow family—the

Magpies and Rooks in the fields on the cliff tops, and Ravens, Carrion

Crows, Jackdaws, and Choughs on the cliff face—and of all of these

birds the Chough is the tamest and most confiding.


Fifty or sixty years ago the Chough was a common enough bird

in the district, and the old inhabitants have told me of having to

stay away from school as children to frighten the Choughs away

from the newly ploughed fields. The farmers thought, seeing the birds

probing in the newly ploughed soil, that they were eating newly planted

wheat, while in reality they were only after the grubs which later

on would feed on the growing wheat. Now all is changed ; the flocks

of Chough have gone, never to return, and to-day it is one of our

rarest resident birds. Its greatest foe at the present time is the egg

collector who, through substantial bribes paid to the local farm workers,

knows the exact location of the nests and the time the full clutch is

laid. The information is telegraphed to the collectors, who arrive in

the early hours of the morning by car, meet their informants, take the

eggs, and are back in their respective homes in a few hours’ time.

There seems little hope for the birds, for the old pairs, having their

nests systematically robbed each year, fail to produce any young

ones to take their place when their allotted span is finished. And

so in a few years more the Chough will be placed on the list of our

extinct birds.


Years ago the Chough was a well-known show bird and in the

days of my childhood, just before the War, I have seen as many as

four or five in the class for “ Softbills ” at the local shows. I never

had one myself, though I have kept the nearly related Alpine Chough,

which is not nearly such an attractive bird as our British Chough.


It was a delightful bird to keep, full of curiosity, and by all accounts

a very long lived one too. There were some in the Wader’s Aviary at

the London Zoo which, I believe, had been there for very many years.



