ALPINE ACCENTOR. 221 



during the summer, but seeking the shelter of the valleys 

 to protect it from the storms of winter. It makes its nest 

 among stones, or in cavities of the rocks, and sometimes on 

 the roofs of houses, on the mountain-sides. The nest is 

 formed of moss and wool, lined with hair from different ani- 

 mals. The eggs are four or five in number, of a fine light 

 blue colour, like those of our Hedge Accentor, Dunnock, or 

 Hedge-sparrow, as it is more commonly called, but larger, 

 those in my own collection measuring eleven lines in length 

 and eight lines in breadth. The vignette at the end of this 

 article represents the nest. 



The food of this species consists of insects and seeds. 



This bird on the Continent does not frequent bushes, nor 

 perch on the branches of trees, like its generic companion the 

 Hedge Accentor ; but is almost always observed to be on 

 rocks or on the ground, and is remarkable for its constant 

 tameness, either from confidence or want of intelligence, 

 being apparently regardless of man. The same character 

 was noticed in the specimens both at Cambridge and at 

 Wells, the birds allowing observers to approach unusually 

 close to them, and when at length obliged to move, making 

 very short flights, and always settling on some part of the 

 nearest building. The resemblance of the steeple-crowned 

 stone edifices of Cambridge, and at the Deanery of Wells, 

 to the pointed and elevated rocks of their own peculiar 

 haunts, were supposed to have been the attraction in both 

 the localities referred to. 



The beak is black at the point, and yellowish white at the 

 base ; the iridcs hazel : head, neck, and ear-coverts, brownish 

 grey ; feathers of the back brown, with longitudinal central 

 patches of darker blackish brown ; rump greyish brown ; 

 wing-primaries blackish brown, the centre of each tertial still 

 darker, edged on both sides with reddish brown, and tipped 

 with dull white ; both the small and large wing-coverts red- 



