SYLVIAD^I. 75 



family includes now as many as thirty British spe- 

 cies, and of these I have been able to include twenty- 

 one species amongst the Somersetshire birds. The 

 food of the greater part of the Sylviadse consists 

 principally of insects, grubs and flies : they may, 

 therefore, claim our protection as much for the ser- 

 vice they render to our gardens (though a few may 

 now and then excite the wrath of the gardener by a 

 sly bite at his fruit) as for the pleasure they afford 

 us by their song. 



ALPINE ACCENTOR, Accentor alpinus. The Alpine 

 Accentor, the first bird on my list of Sylviadse, is a 

 rare and accidental visitant in England, though, 

 thanks to the notices which appear from time to 

 time in the ' Zoologist,' its visits do not appear to 

 be quite so rare as was at one time supposed. I in- 

 clude it in the list of Somersetshire birds on account 

 of one specimen having been shot in the garden of 

 the Deanery at Wells, in the year 1833 : this, I be- 

 lieve, is the only Somerset specimen yet recorded. 



The Alpine Accentor frequents, as its name im- 

 plies, mountainous and rocky districts, differing in 

 this point from our common Hedgesparrow, which it 

 otherwise somewhat resembles, although rather ex- 

 ceeding it in size. Its food is said to consist prin- 

 cipally of insects and seeds. 



The nest is said to be placed among stones or in 

 cavities of rocks, and sometimes on the roofs of 



