This bird is one of the handsomest and at the same time our rarest member of the Crow family. With its glossy black plumage and brilliant red legs and beak it forms a beautiful sight to the ornithologist as he watches it flying over the wild and wind-swept headland that juts out into the Atlantic.

Its flight is extremely graceful and peculiar; a few beats of its wings, then it glides onward with outstretched pinions, the ends of the outer primaries being well separated from each other; its wings close, it drops towards the ground, and then with a few more beats it recovers its former level and continues its flight. This species, which is only found on rocky coasts, is yearly becoming scarcer, but its chief enemy, if we except the ubiquitous egg-collector, is one of its own family, the Jackdaw. As this latter species extends its breeding quarters, so the Chough has to give way before it, being turned out of its nesting-holes till, weary of ineffectual attempts, it leaves the locality. In other places that king of Falcons, the Peregrine, will attack it, resulting in its very rapid extermination. This, however, is apparently an acquired taste on the part of certain Peregrines only, as we have known both species to nest on the same cliff without apparently interfering with each other in the least.

Any hole or fissure in the rock, or the ledge of some cliff, will provide this bird with a nesting-site, and a substantial cup-shaped structure of roots and twigs is built, and lined with wool, rabbit fleck, and hair. Three to five eggs are laid; they are pale greyish white in colour, spotted and streaked with grey or pale brown. Both parents attend to the wants of their young, feeding them on larvÆ grubs and beetles. This species is almost entirely an insect-feeder and far less omnivorous than most of his kind, the long curved beak being especially useful for poking the soft earth or overturning the stones in its search for food. The note, which is very frequently uttered, is not unlike that of the Jackdaw but rather more metallic.

The adult is of a deep, glossy blue black all over. Bill and legs cherry red. The sexes are alike and the young only differ in having the bill and legs dull orange. Length 16 in.; wing 10·7 in.

This species is now only to be found in the wilder and more remote parts of the west of Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. A few solitary pairs may still be found in some parts of England, but they are rapidly disappearing.