The birds of Europe (1837) (14565549887)

Identifier: birdsEuropeIIIGoul (find matches)
Title: The birds of Europe
Year: 1837 (1830s)
Authors: Gould, John, 1804-1881
Subjects: Pictorial works Birds
Publisher: London, Printed by R. and J.E. Taylor, pub. by the author
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library



Text Appearing Before Image:
heights to the lowermountain ranges, more perhaps in order to obtain food than to avoid the severity of the cold. Berries, grains, insects, worms, &c, constitute the food of the Alpine Chough ; it is, indeed, almostomnivorous in its appetite. Its nest is usually made in a cleft or fissure of the rock, and sometimes in the chinks of the walls of oldbuildings among the Alpine heights. The eggs are from three to five in number, of a dull white blotchedwith yellowish brown. When adult, the plumage of this bird is of a uniform black ; the beak orange ; the tarsi and toes vermilion,the under sides of the latter being black; irides dark brown. Both sexes are alike. In the young of the year the black is less pure; the beak is blackish, the base ofthe under mandible being yellow; and the tarsi are black. After the first moult the beak becomes yellowish,and the tarsi pass by shades of brown to red, their colour in the female being more obscure. We have figured an adult of the natural size.
Text Appearing After Image:
CHOUGH.FregiJis graculiis : f&w.J *) t. TnHirA- by ?. jziiUm-wz*; Genus FREGILUS. Gen. Char. Bill longer than the head, strong, arched and pointed. Nostrils basal, oval,hidden by small closely set feathers. Head flat. Wings long, first quill-feather short,fourth and fifth the longest. Tail square, or slightly rounded. Feet strong. Toes four,three before, one behind, the outer toe united at its base to the middle one. Clams strong,very much curved, that of the hind-toe the largest. CHOUGH. Fregilus graculus, Cuvier.Le Pyrrhocorax coracias. The Chough is readily distinguished from the true Crows by the peculiar form of the beak: its habits andoeconomy, as might be expected, are also somewhat different. In this country the Chough is found on therocky coasts of Cornwall, Devonshire and Glamorganshire, at the Isle of Anglesea, and the Isle of Man.A few pairs may be seen about the high cliffs between Freshwater-gate and the Needle rocks of the Isleof Wight. In the North, they frequent t