326 
PERCHING BIRDS. 
Alpine Chough. 
of the English coast. Formerly this species was a comparatively common bird on 
the western coasts of Great Britain and Ireland, nor was it entirely a coast-loving 
one, since individual pairs nested in the recesses of limestone precipices inland, such 
as Whitbarrow Scaur in Westmoreland. The chough has, however, latterly de¬ 
creased in numbers in most of its strongholds, partly owing to human interference; 
although there is some reason to suppose that its extermination may be partially 
accounted for by the special predilection of the peregrine falcon for its flesh. The 
chough nests in the spring of the year, breeding principally among the precipices 
of dizzy cliffs and headlands, deemed impregnable by all but professional cragsmen ; 
but occasionally it rears its young among the broken pinnacles of some ruined 
cathedral. The eggs are white in ground-colour, streaked with brown and grey. 
The Isle of Man was formerly a great stronghold of the species, and when Jardine 
visited that island in 1827, he found the “red-legged crows” most abundant. 
Even in Britain the chough occasionally wanders from its maritime haunts; and 
in Ladak it dwells in the very heart of Asia. Not the least interesting feature in 
the life-history of this bird is the constancy with which individual pairs endeavour 
to rear their young for many successive years in the same nesting-places. Choughs 
obtain much of their food on the grassy borders of the cliffs which they frequent, 
as also in the adjacent fields, feeding either gregariously or in single pairs. 
Amongst the Alps and other mountain-ranges of Central Europe 
the red-billed chough is in many cases replaced by the Alpine 
chough ( G. alpinus) which has a yellow instead of a red beak, and is somewhat 
smaller in dimensions. Mr. Fowler says that the Alpine chough is the character¬ 
istic corvine of the Alps, as it also is of the Apennines; and its lively chatter, 
breaking suddenly on vast and silent solitudes, recalls to memory the familiar 
jackdaw. The Alpine chough nests amongst the crags of its native precipices; the 
eggs being four or five in number, and in colour white, varied with dirty yellow 
mottlings. This chough is a recognised article of commerce, and as such is 
frequently imported to England as a cage-bird. 
Chough- We now come to a small but interesting group of birds of some- 
Thrushes. what doubtful affinity, though probably not distantly related to the 
choughs, from which they are at once distinguished by the relative shortness of 
their wings, which fall short of the tip of the tail by more than the length of the 
metatarsus. They are further distinguished by the possession of a peculiar style 
of coloration, and also by their inferior size. Comparatively little is known of the 
habits of the chough-thrushes, these birds being found only in certain parts of 
Central Asia, and having rarely come under the notice of field-naturalists. The 
whole of the four species known to science inhabit desert regions and sterile 
plains. Of these the first discovered was Pander’s chough - thrush ( Podoces 
panderi), and although many years have elapsed since its existence became known, 
it is still very rare in collections. Nor is this surprising, since its home is the 
lower Oxus, and the inaccessible deserts of Turkestan. It is not a precarious 
species, nor does it associate with other kinds of birds, living for the most part in 
couples, which presumably pair for life, and constantly associate together, sub¬ 
sisting upon the insects and other food to be found in the vicinity of their favourite 
sandhills. Unlike its congener, the plain-coloured chough-thrush, the present 
