The Alpine Accentor. i33 



Family— TURDID.F. Subfamily— A CCENTORIN^.. 



The Alpine Accentor. 



Accentor collaris, ScOP. 



CURIOUSLY enough, althougli this bird is only an occasional straggler to 

 Great Britain, I caught a specimen in my garden at Penge about the 

 year 1883. At the time I did not know what to make of it; and, not 

 being aware of its rarity, I never recorded the capture : indeed I supposed then 

 that it might be only an unusually large, brownish, and somewhat aberrant variety 

 of the Hedge- Accentor : it was evidently a young bird, as the white throat-patch 

 was barely indicated. So far as I can remember, I caught this bird in September ; 

 I know that it was just when the bird-catchers were bringing Linnets and Gold- 

 finches for sale. The bird was abominably wild, knocked itself about in a cage, 

 finally got a growth over one eye, and died in such poor condition that I never 

 thought of preserving the skin: had I then known its value, I should have saved 

 it in proof of my statement, and certainly kept it when alive in a large cage by 

 itself; whereas it had two Hedge- Accentors as companions; the latter, by the side 

 of their rare relative, looked insignificant, much as a Song-Thrush by the side of 

 a Missel-Thrush.* 



This species has its home in the mountains of South-western Europe, Asia 

 Minor, the Caucasus, and Northern Persia. In Great Britain it has been chiefly 

 met with in the southern counties ; having been known to occur in Cambridge- 

 shire, Suffolk, Essex, Surrey, Sussex, Devonshire, Somersetshire, Gloucestershire, 

 Wales, and Yorkshire. 



The adult bird has the crown and nape smoky- grey, with darker stripes ; the 

 remainder of the upper surface brown, with darker shaft-streaks ; rump slightly 

 paler than the back ; median and greater wing-coverts brown, varied with black, 

 and tipped with white; quills and tail-feathers dark-brown, tipped with buff; ear- 

 coverts grey, with darker stripes; chin and throat white, with black spots; breast, 



* lu recording these facts now, I am perfectly well aware that mauj- scientific Ornithologists will only 

 curl their noses in scorn, believing that I am either drawing upon a vivid imagination, or talking of some 

 common species which I imagined to be an Aicenlor; but those who know me intimately, will give me credit 

 for an excellent memory for form and colouring. 



