XURDID^— WA RBLERS. 



89 



the 14th of May [1850]. The nest was built solely of reeds, and exactly re- 

 sembled that represented in the Zoologist (p. 1307). It contained five eggs 

 uniformly freckled all over with minute dark brown spots." 



More (33. 23) regards this record with doubt, and it is hard to do otherwise, 

 though it is quite possible that it is genuine. Green was a dealer in skins and a 

 bird-stuffer. 



Alpine Accentor : Accentor collaris. 



A rare and accidental straggler to Britain, where it has occurred 

 about a dozen times. The 

 first British example met with 

 was obtained in Essex. 



Mr. James Pamplin of Whip's 

 Cross Nursery, Walthamstow, says 

 (12. V. 288) : 



" A few years since I shot a 

 small bird in a garden on the bor- 

 ders of Epping Forest, which I 

 did not know, nor could anyone 

 tell me what it was, till within a 

 fortnight a gentleman requested 

 me to allow him to take it to Lon- 

 don. He accordingly went to Mr. 

 Gould, Naturalist, 20, Broad Street, 



AI.PINF. ACCENTOR, J/3. 



Golden Square, who sends me an account of its being the Accentor alpinus, or 

 Alpine Warbler, the only one known to have been killed in England with the 

 exception of one in Dr. Thackeray's garden at Cambridge." 



Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun.,who has carefully investigated the history of this speci- 

 men, has ascertained that it was shot in August, 1817, in the garden of Forest 

 House, close to Mr. Gurney Barclay's fields, from among a number of Chaffinches 

 which flew up from one of the beds, and that it is still in Mr. Pamplin's posses- 

 sion (37. i. 279). 



Hedge Sparrow : Accentor modularis. Locally " Hedge- 

 bet," " Hedge-betty," or " Hedge-moke." 



An abundant resident everywhere. It is sometimes styled the 

 "Hedge Accentor," 

 which name is scientific- 

 ally correct, as it is not 

 nearly related to our 

 mischievous enemy the 

 House Sparrow. 



Mr, Walter Crouch has 

 told me of a white variety 

 seen several times at Cars- 

 well, Barking-Side. 



HEDGE SPARROW, ^. 



{After Be2vzck.) . 



* It is interesting to note that the specimen figured by Yarrell is one of several (23. 79 & 14 i. 

 268) obtained at Duxford, in Cambridgeshire, just beyond the Essex boundary, about the year 

 1825, by Mr. Joseph Clarke, as I am informed by that gentleman himself. One or more of them 

 are now in the Saffron Walden Museum. 



