Cornwall, which escaped and stocked theseLlocks.” No date
is mentioned, though apparently referring to his, own time-;
but there is poetical authority at least, for the existence of
this bird at Dover at a much earlier date. Shakspeare, in his
description of the celebrated cliff which now bears his name,
says in reference .to its height,—
“ The Crows and .Choughs that wing the midway air
Show scarce so gross as beetles.” • -
BeachyHead, and the high cliffs about -Eastbourne,
another locality for the Chough. I 5have»nsee®Sit on the
highest part of the cliffs between Freshwater Gate and the
Needle Lighthouse -in the Isle of Wight^ife Mr. Thomas
Bond tells me this bird inhabits Gadcliff and Tynchain, in
the Isle of Purbeck. I t is not uncommon in some parts of
Devonshire, as I learn from my-friend Mr. George Mello.
In Cornwall, Dr. Borlase quoting, Upton, who wrote- about
the middle of the fifteenth century, says,. the .Cornish Chough
was so great a favourite in those days, -that some of 'the 'moist
ancient families bore these birds in their coat- armour. Th e
Chough is noticed as peculiar to Cornwall by Dr. William
Turner in 1544, by Childrey in 1661, and by Merret m 166^1-
I have seen_ specimens from Glamorganshire. In Irelansli.
Mr. Thompson informs me, the Chough is -found in certain
localities all round the coast. The Isle of Man has- been
already noticed as a locality, particularly the-southern part,
and the rpck called the Calf of Man. | Mr. hlacgillivray
^mentions having met with this .bird in Galloway and the
Island of Barry, one of the outer Hebrides. Dr. George
rJohnston, in his address to the members of the Berwickshire
Naturalists’ Club in September 183$, noticed that the
Chough breeds in the rocks between- St. Abb’s Head and
Fast Castle, and refers to this fact being'distinctly mentioned
by Bishop Leslie in his history de Origirie Scot or urn, published
in. 1518,. and; it is: included also as a bird of Scotland
by Sir Robert Sibbald in his. Scotia Illusttata, published in
1684; but further north than Scotland I find no notice
of i t . ;
The Chough is found, though rarely, in the channel island
of Jersey, but not in Guernsey. It is found on most of the
high ranges of mountains in France and Switzerland, on the
rocky country about Arragon in Spain ; it is found also in
the ,Isle' of Crete, and in Egypt is said to inhabit the plains.
I t is found on the'- mountains of Persia, in the countriës be-
tweéHiffie Black and the Caspian Seas, and north of the Cauca-
sian range to,the southern part of Siberia; it is also found
on the Himalaya Mountains.
The plumage o f‘'this bird is-uniformly black, glossed with
blue ; the irides of two circles and two colours, the inner
ring red, the outer ring blue^ the eyelids red ; the ihside of
the mouth and the tongue yellq-jv; the wings reach nearly
to the end of the tail, shining with mbf^metallic lustre than
the^othèr^partsfdf; the plumage; the béak, legs, and toes,
vermilion red ; thfe/claws shining black.
In, the family‘of^the Crows, the males are larger than the
feïnafCs.. The male in »this, spëciès measures almost seventeen
inches in length.. The beak from the projecting feathers
to the point one'inch, and sevên-eighths: from the carpal
» i n t of the wing to the end :.df! the^fongest quill-feather
eleven inches and three-quartets ; the first feather full three
inched ^shorter than the second, and this an inch shorter than
the third ; the fourth a little longef than the third, and the
longest in the wing.
The female of this species, obligingly sent me from Tyneham,
in the Isle of Purbeck, by Mr. Thomas Bond, measured
fourteen inches and a half in length; the beak one
inch and a half from the projecting feathers to the point;
the wing from the carpal joint to the end nine inches and