Subject: Choughs (Re:Help with Bird Names)
Date: Nov 20 21:14:28 1995
From: Riesen Reto - riesenr at chem.ubc.ca


Chris Hill wrote about Choughs:
> > Chawghes
> Currently spelled "Chough" and pronounced "chuff," they look like a crow
> with a smaller red (or yellow, depending on species) bill and legs. I
> believe that in the past, there was looser usage, and the term chough (or
> Chawghe) might sometimes have been applied to crows, as well as true
> choughs.

Whether there was really looser usage than today? In the last (?)
chapter of King Lear, he is guided to the cliffs at the coast, and recognizes
the place for the calls of the choughs - apt description of the Chough
habitat of today in Britain (e.g. Anglesey) [Shakespeare 16/17th century].
Translation of Chough in a modern (american-) english version: Crow.


Reto Riesen
Dept. Chem., UBC
Vancouver
riesenr at chem.ubc.ca