FREGILUS GRACULUS. Chough. Corvus graculus, Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 158. coracias, Lapierre. Coracia erythroramphos, Vieill. Nouv. Dict. d’Hist. Nat., tom. viii. p. 2 Pyrrhocorax graculus, Temm. Man. d’Orn., 2nd edit. tom. i. p. 122. rupestris, Brehm, Vog. Deutschl., p. P75. Fregilus graculus, Cuy. Régn. Anim., 1817, tom. i. p. 406. europaeus, Less. Traité d’Orn., p. 324. erythropus, Swains. Class. of Birds, vol. ii. p- 268. Coracia gracula, Gray & Mitch. Gen. of Birds, vol. ii. p. 321, Cuouen, Cornish Chough, and Red-legged Crow are three of the trivial names by which this bird is com- monly known. It was formerly much more numerous in the British Is] boy it occurred plentifully at the Needles, in the Isle of Wight ; figured in my ‘Birds of E ands than it is now. When I was a and it was there that I killed the specimens urope.’ To say that the bird has totally disappeared from that place, the neigh- bouring Beachy Head, and Shakspeare’s Cliff at Dover would perhaps not be deviating from the truth. Now as these steep and precipitous chalk rocks, and the closely cropped downs at their backs, have under- gone no change, and consequently are as well suited to the habits of the bird as in former times, it is the hands of the relentless gunner and egg-collectors which have either it away to other localities. On some of the cliffs of the south coast of Englan¢ as is evidenced by the following note received a short time since from W. R. ( extirpated it or driven it still holds its own, ilennie, Esq. Writing from Osborne House, Swanage, this gentleman says :—‘* You asked me whether I had met with Choughs of late on the south coast. As we were talking then of Devon, perhaps the question had reference to the south coast of that country only ; but I send a line to say that I find them retty frequent here on the Dorset cliffs. I saw several pairs yesterday in a walk of about eight miles along the coast, between this place and Kimmeridge, and stood behind a stone wall watching one pegging away for beetles within fifteen yards of me.” In his ‘ List of British Birds,’ Mr. Rodd states that the Chough is much less numerous in Cornwall than formerly, but is still sparingly observed in different localities along the coast, and that it breeds annually in Zennor Cliffs. It is numerous in many parts of Wales and in the Isle of Man, is very abundant in Islay, Galloway, and some of the western islands of Scotland, but appears to be comparatively scarce in the north-eastern parts of that country. Thompson states that it inhabits the precipitous rocks of various parts of Ireland. Temminck informs us that on the European continent it inhabits the high Alps of Switzerland, Italy, the Tyrol, Bavaria, and Carinthia, and that in rigorous winters it accidentally occurs on less elevated mountains, such as the Jura and the Vosges, always in the vicinity of regions covered with rime. Mr. Howard Saunders found it abundant in the mountain-districts of Southern Spain, especially at the back of the Sierra Nevada. It is said to inhabit the island of Crete ; but Lord Lilford remarks that he did not meet with it in Turkey or Greece ; yet, according to Loche, it frequents the nearly opposite high mountains of Algeria, and it was seen in large flocks near Tetuan, in Eastern Morocco, by Mr. C. F. Tyrwhitt Drake. The Rev. H. B. Tristram did not meet with it on ne Lebanon, where, he remarks, it surely ought to be. Whether it ever occurs in Northern Russia or Siberia is a question I am unable to Palte. The bird of this form that exists there may prove to be the very different Lregilus himalayanus. i Many of the actions of the Chough remind us of the Jackdaw. It is very active in its movements, ~ both durin ds 8 | reconciled to the aviary, where its inquisitive disposition renders it very amusing. Like its congener, J9 yr flight and when on the ground ; is cheerful and happy under restraint, and readily becomes 5 : ; : g it 1 : ievi | arly of any thing at is glittering. In the British Islands it mostly it is fond of petty thieving, particularly of any thing that is glittering ao i ae dwells among the rocks on the sea-side; it is not, therefore, to be sought for inland, except in high and x c 5 x 5 s ° oe ae oo lifficul i istri ros, whic * Collec alwavs looks upon with interest, are very difficult mountainous districts. Its eggs, which the collector alway x | : to procure, in consequence of the excessive caution of the birds in selecting their places of nidification, which, > “ , 2 “ox inf ‘itson, are always » face of the steepest cliffs, and in general in the Rev. W. D. Fox informed Mr. Hewitson, are always on the | i i “ns at right < »s frequently, so that you cannot reach the nest, or even clefts far in, the passage to which turns at right angles frequently, 1 ; a eee ceede >a quantity of roots and dry grass, lined with see it. The nest is outwardly composed of sticks, succeeded by