Alpine Chough
Pyrrhocorax graculus (Linnaeus, 1766)
Photo © By Orly Rowienski - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20224540
STATUS
Eurasia and north Africa. Polytypic.
OVERVIEW
Species not admitted nationally (BOU 1971).
NOT PROVEN
0). 1881 Oxfordshire Broughton Castle, Banbury, female, 8th April, now at Mansfield Museum.
(O. V. Aplin, Zoologist 1881: 422; O. V. Aplin, Midland Naturalist 1881: 139-140; O. V. Aplin, Zoologist 1881: 471; O. V. Aplin, Midland Naturalist 1881: 285; J. Whitaker, Zoologist 1882: 431-432; O. V. Aplin, Zoologist 1884: 51).
[Seebohm, 1883-85; Smart, 1886; Hartert et al., 1912; BOU, 1971].
History Oliver V. Aplin of Bodicote, Oxon (1881) in The Zoologist, 3rd series, Vol. V. p. 422, and in the Midland Naturalist, Vol. IV. pp. 139-140, says: 'On the 8th of April last I examined a specimen of the Chough at our village birdstuffer's. It appears to be not fully matured, the legs being a reddish orange and the bill yellow; the latter seemed unusually short. On dissection I found it to be a female. The bird was in very good condition; the stomach contained the remains of several small beetles and one caterpillar entire, about an inch long. It was killed in Broughton Park, probably the same day that I saw it. This is, I believe, the first occurrence of the bird in the district, and I have no other record of its having been obtained in Oxfordshire.'
[Possibly an Alpine Chough escaped from confinement. - Ed.]
O. V. Aplin of Banbury (1881) in The Zoologist, 3rd series, Vol. V. p. 471, and in the Midland Naturalist, Vol. IV. p. 285, says: 'An examination of a specimen in the Oxford Museum and a reference to the plate in Mr. Dresser's Birds of Europe leave me very little doubt that the Chough I mentioned last month (p. 422) is the Alpine bird, Pyrrhocorax alpinus, Koch, as suggested in your editorial note. With regard to its having escaped from captivity, I may say that the plumage was clean and not rubbed in the least, nor did the food found in the stomach point to its having been caged at any very recent period. Possibly though it was an escaped bird, and had been at liberty long enough to lose its marks of confinement.'
Joseph Whitaker of Rainworth Lodge, Mansfield (1882) in The Zoologist, 3rd series, Vol. VI. pp. 431-432, says: 'Banbury, who also saw it skinned. It was to all appearance a wild bird, the wing and tail-feathers being perfect, and the bird in good condition. The stomach contained several coleopterous insects and one caterpillar. Mr. Aplin states, in a letter to me, that he himself is perfectly satisfied that the bird is a wild one, and, from its plumage and contents of stomach, I should think the same. It has previously occurred in a wild state in Heligoland, and there is no reason it should not do so in Britain.' [This is the specimen which has been already noticed in the Zoologist (1881, pp. 422, 471). We are sorry to disabuse our correspondent of the idea that he possesses a British-killed specimen of the Alpine Chough, in the sense in which he would understand it. "British-killed", in one sense, it is; but we have no doubt that it had previously escaped from confinement. The Alpine Chough is not migratory, and not at all likely to occur here in a wild state. Neither is our own Cornish Chough migratory, and is almost as unlikely to occur in Oxfordshire as the other. - Ed.]
Oliver V. Aplin of Bloxham (1884) in The Zoologist, 3rd series, Vol. VIII. p. 51, under 'Note of some Rare British Birds in the Collection of Mr J. Whitaker', says: 'Pyrrhocorax alpinus, Koch. - A female example procured in Oxfordshire, and mentioned in the Zoologist, 1881, pp. 442, 471, and 1882, p. 431.'
Smart (1886: 28) says: 'Mr. Seebohm admits the authenticity but questions the genuineness of the wild bird as it is one likely to be imported.'
