502 BRITISH BIRDS. 
Tatra Mountains and the Galician Carpathians, by Baron von Miller in 
the Alps, and by Victor Ritter von Tschusi in the Riesengebirge. The 
Alpine Accentor is a summer visitor to the grassy slopes where a brilliant 
arctic flora, watered by the ever-melting ice, covers the ledges of the rocks 
and the little plateaux amongst the boulders, between the highest limit of 
forest-growth and the lowest boundary of perpetual snow. Its migrations, 
however, are very limited. When its breeding-grounds are covered with 
snow it descends into the valleys, and in severe winters will sometimes 
wander further from home and be seen in unwonted localities. Except, 
perhaps, when actually engaged in the duties of nidification, it is a more 
or less gregarious bird; and in winter they are usually seen in small parties 
of ten or a dozen individuals. It is extremely tame, and allows itself to be 
approached within ten or twelve paces without showing alarm. It is both 
insectivorous and graminivorous. In spring it finds abundance of small 
beetles, flies, gnats, moths, ants, and their larve amongst the gentians, 
saxifrages, anemones, primulas, and potentillas which adorn its breeding- 
grounds ; in autumn the alpine ground-fruits strawberry, crowberry, cran- 
berry, &c. plentifully supply it with food; and in winter it feeds upon 
a variety of seeds, especially those of grasses of different kinds. The 
song is described as something like that of the Lark ; and the male is said 
frequently to ascend thirty or forty feet into the air, and then descend 
again, singing like a Tree-Pipit or a Snow-Bunting. At other times they 
will sit motionless for a long time basking in the sun on a rock, with head 
drawn in, plumage puffed out, and wings and tail depressed. The call- 
note is a plaintive tree, tree, tree. They are said not to hop, but to run 
on the grass and on the rocks. The flight is undulating. 
It is said that they breed twice in the year, about the middle of May 
and the middie of July; but this requires confirmation. The nest is 
placed on the ground, under an overhanging rock or rhododendron shrub, 
and is neatly finished and rather deep. It is composed of dry round grass- 
stalks, intermixed with fine roots and a few lichens. It is said sometimes 
to be lined with moss, wool, or hair. The eggs vary in number from five 
to six, and in size from 1:0 by ‘7 inch to ‘9 by °63 inch. In colour they 
are unspotted pale greenish blue. 
From the colour of the eggs it might be supposed that the Accentors 
were related to the Chats. The song of many of them is also somewhat 
Chat-like. In its habits the Alpine Accentor is much more Chat-like than 
either the Hedge-Sparrow or the Mountain-Accentor. Both these species 
perch freely in trees ; but the Alpine Accentor, like the Chats, is essentially 
a rock bird, and when perched on a rock is said often to drop its head and 
the fore part of its body suddenly, at the same time jerking its tail and 
drooping its wings—a very Turdine habit. 
The Alpine Accentor has the colour of the head, neck, and ear-coverts 
