. A history of British birds . -coverts greyish-black edgedwith rose-colour ; thighs and lower tail-coverts black : legsand toes yellowish-brown ; claws darker brown. The whole length is eight inches and a half; from thecarpal joint to the tip of the wing, five inches. The adult female, at the same time, resembles the male,but wants the black patch at the base of the bill, has ashorter crest, and less bright tints ; the inner wing-covertsand lower tail-coverts are generally edged with dull white. In the young of the year, the bill is yellow at the base,brown along the culmen and at the point:
. A history of British birds . -coverts greyish-black edgedwith rose-colour ; thighs and lower tail-coverts black : legsand toes yellowish-brown ; claws darker brown. The whole length is eight inches and a half; from thecarpal joint to the tip of the wing, five inches. The adult female, at the same time, resembles the male,but wants the black patch at the base of the bill, has ashorter crest, and less bright tints ; the inner wing-covertsand lower tail-coverts are generally edged with dull white. In the young of the year, the bill is yellow at the base,brown along the culmen and at the point: there is no crest:the whole of the upper parts nearly uniform light greyish-brown, faintly striped on the top of the head with a deepershade ; the wings and tail a dark brown, the feathers edgedwith dull bufiy-white ; chin and throat dull white, the latterwith indistinct brown stripes; the rest of the lower partsdull bufly-white, tinged on the flanks with ashy-brown;legs, toes and claws, brown. 252 PASSERES. COUVlDM. CORVIDJ^.. Pyrrhocokax graculus (Linnoeus*).THE CHOUGH. Fregilns graculus. Ptrrhocorax, TunstaUf.—Beak hard, slender, compressed, arched, andpointed. Nostrils basal, hidden by small, closely-set feathers. Wings long andgraduated ; first primary much shorter tlian the second, and about half as longas the third, the fourth the longest. Tail nearly even. Feet strong, tarsuslonger than the middle toe, to which the oiiter toe is united as far as its firstjoint ; claws strong and much curved. The Chough in England is not a common bird, and isnowadays almost exclusively confined to the neighbourhoodof the bolder parts of the sea-coast of the southern andwestern counties, where it inhabits the higher cliflfs, thoughit apparently frequented a good many inland localities informer times. Merrett in 1667 speaks of it as found in * Corvus (iraculus, Liunteus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 158 (1766).t Orn. Brit. p. 2 (1771). CHOUGH. 253 omnibus oris maritimis a Cornubia ad Dorober
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Keywords: ., bookauthorsaun, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectbirds
