308 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



THE TRUE ACCENTORS. GENUS ACCENTOR. 



Accentor, Bechst, Orn. Taschenb., i., p. 191 (1802). 



Type, A. collaris (Scop.). 



As has already been explained, the Alpine Accentors are 

 mountain-loving birds, with a differently formed wing to the 

 Hedge -Sparrows. As in the latter birds the sexes are alike, 

 but they appear to have a winter plumage, when the feathers 

 are paler-edged, and the summer plumage is gained by the 

 abrasion of these pale margins. 



THE ALPINE ACCENTOR. ACCENTOR COLLARIS. 



Accentor collaris (Scop.), Newt. ed. Yarr., i., p. 296 (1871); 



Dresser, B. Eur., iii., p. 29, pi. 99 (1873) ; Sharpe, Cat. 



B., vii., p. 661 (1883); B. O. U. List Brit. B., p. 23 



(1883); Lilford, Col. Fig., Brit. B., pt. vii. (1888); 



Saunders, Man , p. 87 (1889). 

 Accentor alpinus, Bechst.; Macg., Brit. B., ii., p. 258 (1839); 



Seeb., Brit. B., i., p. 501 (1883). 



Adult Male. Light ashy-grey above, all the feathers broadly 

 streaked with black down the centre; rump more uniform ashy; 

 scapulars externally rufous, like the inner secondaries, which 

 are also broadly edged with rufous ; lesser wing-coverts ashy ; 

 median and greater coverts black, tipped with white, the 

 latter externally ashy-olive ; quills blackish, the secondaries 

 tipped with whity-brown, and externally whity-brown or light 

 rufous, the innermost ones rufous along both webs ; tail-feathers 

 dark brown, edged with ashy-brown, with a white tip to 

 the inner web of the outer feathers, rufous on the others ; 

 head and neck like the back, and streaked with blackish 

 centres to the feathers, with a faintly indicated pale eye- 

 brow ; sides of face and sides of neck ashy-grey, as well as 

 the fore-neck and chest, enclosing the white cheeks and throat, 

 which form a white gorget, spotted or barred with lines of black ; 

 breast and abdomen light ashy, as also the thighs, the vent 

 whiter ; sides of body and flanks uniform cinnamon-brown, the 

 flanks edged with white and centred with blackish-brown ; 

 under tail-coverts white, with blackish centres ; under wing- 

 coverts and axillaries ashy, washed with rufous, the edge of the 



