ACCENTOR I N.E. 



THE ALPINE ACCExXTOR. 



Accentor collakis (Scopoli). 



As might be expected, this mountain-loving species is only a 

 rare straggler to England. Its first recorded occurrence was at 

 Cambridge, where two of these birds were noticed climbing about 

 the buildings or feeding on the grass-plots in King's College, one of 

 them being shot on November 22nd 1822. Previously, however, 

 an example had been obtained near Walthamstow, Essex, by Mr. 

 Pamplin, in August 18 17. Subsequently several birds have been 

 taken — or their occurrence recorded by competent observers : one 

 near Lowestoft, Suffolk; one at Wells, Somerset; four in South 

 Devon ; one near Cheltenham ; one near Scarborough ; two near 

 Lewes, Sussex ; and one on the Llanberis side of Snowdon, on 

 August 20th 1870, The last bird was exceedingly tame, hopping 

 about a small stone-enclosure, where I watched it as long as I dared, 

 being fearful of attracting the attention of the man who accompanied 

 a pony ridden by one of the party. 



As a straggler the Alpine Accentor has occurred in Heligoland, 

 Northern Germany, Belgium, and the north of France ; while along 

 the cliffs of the Loire it is to be found with tolerable regularity in 

 autumn (Bureau). Its home is, however, in the mountains of Savoy, 

 and the ranges which, under various names, stretch from the Alps to 

 the Carpathians, inclusive ; the Appenines ; Sicily ; Sardinia ; the 

 Pyrenees and their Cantabrian continuation ; the Cuadarrama and 

 other Spanish ranges down to the Sierra Nevada; Creece ; Asia 

 Minor ; the Caucasus, and Northern Persia. Eastward, the distri- 



