fruit the inside of the gizzard and mouth were stained bright pink.”* When in Dublin on the 26th of June, 1834, I saw an adult male P. roseus previous to its being skinned. It was taken in the garden of R. Long, Esq., Longfield, Cashel, in a cherrynet, on the "7th of that month, and had been kept alive for a fortnight. In July, 1836, Lieut. Davis, R.N., of Donaghadee, sent to the Belfast Museum an adult male, which was captured early in the month, in a garden near that town. About the middle of the month, a second example was shot at Hillsborough in the same county. On the 12th of August, the same year, a third was obtained in Ireland: it was shot near Kenmare, county of Kerry. In the month of August, 1837, a rose-coloured pastor was shot from among a flock of starlings on one of the islands of Arran, at the entrance of Galway bay. In June, 1838, one of these birds was obtained near Ashbourne, about ten miles from Dublin; its stomach was filled with cherries. On the 7th or 8th of July, that year, a P. roseus was shot, when feeding on the same fruit, at Newbarron, near Fieldstown, a few miles from Dublin. On the 13th of September, 1838, I saw two specimens which had been killed in different parts of the north of Ireland. A male bird was shot about the 1st of that month, in the plantations at Bangor Castle, county of Down, where another was seen in company with it; they had been observed there for some time. The other was shot by Alex. Tyler, Esq., at the Umbra, Magilligan, county of Londonderry, about the 10th of September. Having the oppor tunity of examining this bird in a fresh state, I drew up the following description Entire length inch. line. 8 9 * Rev. T. Knox. Tibia feathered to the tarsal joint. Colours, those of the adult male, as described by authors (as are likewise those of the one above noticed, from Bangor Castle), and as such contradistinguished from the plumage assumed until the second year, according to Temminck's description (Man. part 3, p. 76). On dissection, it proved a male, and was in excellent condition. The stomach, with the exception of a large coleopterous insect, was entirely filled with the seeds of gooseberries. In April, 1838, Mr. H. H. Dombrain of Dublin, received a rose-coloured pastor, which had been captured some years before at Woodhill, Ardara, county of Donegal: it was taken alive in the green-house in an exhausted state, and died a few hours afterwards. With respect to the county of Kerry, Mr. R. Chute mentions one being shot when picking at fruit in the garden at Ballyheigh Castle; another being obtained at Watteville, and a third in July, 1841, when feeding on raspberries in the garden at Derraquin. A bird of this species, killed in the middle of August, 1845, in Roscommon (?), was sent to Dublin to be preserved. A pair was often seen, during the summer of 1846, in the garden at the Umbra, Magilligan, where they were remarked to be "very fond of fruit." This species appears under the head of "Irregular birds of Passage," in a paper by M. Duval-Jouve on the Migratory Birds of Provence, published in the Zoologist, for Oct., 1845, p. 1115. It is remarked: "The rose-coloured pastor is sometimes seen in Provence. In the autumn of 1817, many were observed; in 1837, at the end of May and June, some were seen and always in flocks; they sought the large trees on the banks of the brooks, were fond of cherries, and might be easily approached." On a comparison of Irish specimens, with some obtained at "Suharunpoor," India, the species proved to be the same. THE CHOUGH. Cornish Chough. Red-legged Jackdaw* or Crow. Fregilus graculus, Linn. (sp.) Inhabits precipitous rocks in various parts of Ireland. It is noticed in Harris's Down (1744), and Smith's Cork (1749), as one of the birds of those counties, and in the latter is said to be "very common, frequenting rocks, old castles, and ruins upon the sea-coast." The species is more generally diffused around the rock-bound shores of Ireland, than British authors would lead us to believe it is on those of Scotland and England. It may be met with in such localities in the north, east, south, and west of the island. The basaltic precipices of the north-east are admirably adapted to choughs, and about the promontory of Fairhead these birds particularly abound. On one occasion, when visiting this place and the head-lands in the immediate vicinity of the Giant's Causeway, on the same day (8th of June), during the breeding-season of these birds, I remarked choughs only about the former locality, and jackdaws only about the latter, both species being numerous in their respective quarters: the choughs, too, were wonderfully tame in this instance, permitting our approach within twenty-five paces.† About Horn-Head, in the north-west of the county of * Red-legged jackdaw of the north of Ireland; cliff-daw of Kerry. Smith states in his History of Cork, that the Irish name for this bird implies a Spanish jackdaw. + In Dr. J. D. Marshall's memoir, on the statistics and natural history of the basaltic island of Rathlin (lying off the north of the county of Antrim), it is remarked of the chough:-"This is called by the islanders, the jackdaw, and is by far the most numerous species on the island. In the month of July, I found them everywhere associated in large flocks, at one place frequenting inland situations, and at another congregated on the sea-shore. They had just collected together their different families, now fully fledged, and were picking up their food (which consisted chiefly of insects), either on the shore, in the crevices of rocks, or in the pasture fields. Mr. Selby mentions that the chough will not alight on the turf, if it can possibly avoid it, always preferring gravel, stones, or walls. In Rathlin, its choice of situation seems to be but sparingly exhibited, as I found it frequenting the corn and pasture fields, in even greater numbers than along the shores. * * They breed on the lofty cliffs overhanging the sea; the eggs are of a whitish colour, speckled at the larger end * Donegal, I saw many choughs and jackdaws in the month of June, 1832, and was told by the gamekeeper of the district, that they never bred in company, or associated together there; the nest of the chough was stated by him to be placed so far within the clefts of rocks, as to be difficult of access. In August, 1845, Mr. Hyndman remarked that they were numerous about the rocks of Tory Island. The nearest place to Belfast tenanted at present, or within the last few years, by a pair or two of these birds, is a range of marine cliffs, called the Gobbins, just outside the northern entrance to the bay. Here on the 28th of May, some years ago, a nest of young birds, which made known their proximity to the summit of the rocks by their calls for food, was doomed to perish, by a visitor to the place wantonly shooting both their parents. In 1847, two pair bred there. When at Strangford Lough, in June, 1846, I was credibly assured that the chough breeds in Skatrick castle, and in an old castle on island Mahee. There are no cliffs in that quarter. One of these birds, shot on an island in Strangford Lough, in February, 1843, came under my notice. That choughs will sometimes wander far from their usual haunts, to a place in no respect suited to them, was evinced on the 5th of March, 1836, when a pair appeared at Dunbar's Dock, Belfast, and one of them, in beautiful adult plumage, was shot. That day and the preceding were very stormy: the wind southerly. The stomach of the specimen procured was filled with insect larvæ. In that from Strangford were the remains of such Crustacea, as are met with occasionally, "high and dry," upon marine rocks, as Ligia oceanica (small), Aselli, &c.; there was also some vegetable matter. with brown. The chough is of a restless, active disposition, hopping or flying about from place to place; it is also very shy, and can with difficulty be approached. Temminck says, that the legs of this bird, before the moult, are of a dark colour; while Montagu affirms, that they are orange-coloured from the first. The young which I examined, were about six weeks old, and in them the bills were of a brownish orange; not of that brilliant colour which marks the adult bird, but certainly exhibiting enough of the orange to lead us to conjecture, that they would become completely of that colour after the moult. The legs could not be called 'orange-coloured,' for although there was a tinge of that colour, yet the brown predominated. I should, therefore, agree with Temminck, in stating the legs and feet to be 'dark-coloured' in the young birds." When on a tour with Mr. R. Ball in the summer of 1834 to the west and south of Ireland, choughs were observed by us at Achil Head, and the largest of the South Islands of Arran, &c., in the west: in the south, they were heard about the Lower Lake of Killarney, and seen at Cable Island, near Youghal. Other parts of the coast of Cork are frequented by them. About the cliffs at Ardmore, county of Waterford, they are said by Mr. R. Ball to be numerous, and to congregate in the evening like jackdaws before going to roost. Requiring two or three specimens for friends, he one evening in July or August offered a man a shilling each, for all that he would bring to him on the following morning, when, at an early hour, the man duly appeared with fourteen, and seriously apologised for the smallness of the number. Col. Sabine has remarked, that they breed in the rocks at Ballybunian, on the coast of Kerry; and the late Mr. T. F. Neligan of Tralee, in mentioning to me some years ago, that they were very common about the marine cliffs of that county, stated, that numbers built in the rocks of inland mountains, four or five miles distant from the sea. The choice of such places is not rare in Ireland. Some of the latest writers on British ornithology appear to think, that the chough never leaves the vicinity of the sea, and in one work, it is stated, that the species is "never observed inland," although Crow Castle has been noticed by Montagu as one of its haunts; this is situated in the beautiful vale of Llangollen in North Wales, where the Lombardy poplar, spiring above the other rich foliage around the picturesque village of the same name, imparts, in addition to other accompaniments, quite an Italian character to the scene. A pair of these birds were some years since observed throughout the breeding-season, about a ruin between Newtown-Crommelin and Cushendall, county of Antrim, three miles distant from the sea: at Salagh Braes, a semicircular range of basaltic rocks in the same county, and nearly twice that distance from the coast, the chough builds. The gamekeeper at Tollymore Park, county of Down, informed me in 1836, that he * "Cornish choughs with red bills and legs," are noticed in O'Flaherty's 'H-Iar Connaught," written in 1684, as frequenting Arranmore, &c., p. 67. |