ALPINE ACCENTOR. 24] 
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. It 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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