ALPINE ACCENTOR. 241 



The Alpine Accentor is not uncommon in Germany, 

 France, Switzerland, Provence, and Italy, in which coun- 

 tries it frequents the highest elevations of the mountain 

 districts during the summer, but seeking the shelter of the 

 valleys to protect it from the storms of winter. Tt 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 animals. 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 con- 

 stant tameness, either from confidence or want of intelli- 

 gence, being apparently regardless of man. The same cha- 

 racter was noticed in the specimens both at Cambridge and 

 at Wells, the birds allowing observers to approach unusual- 

 ly 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 irides hazel : head, neck, and ear-coverts, 

 brownish grey ; feathers of the back brown, with longitu- 



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