e) 
nd 
v 
2 
margined with dull rufous ; wing-coverts blackish brown, the larger ones being broadly margined with 
brownish grey at the base, and all having pure white apical spots; tail blackish brown, narrowly 
margined with dull rufous brown, the central feathers with rufous brown, and the outer feathers with 
white patches at the tip of the inner web; throat white, each feather having a black tip, thus giving 
almost the appearance of scales; breast and abdomen dull ashy grey, the feathers on the latter having 
a narrow oblique line of blackish brown across the tip, the terminal portion being dull ashy white; 
flanks rich light chestnut-red, most of the feathers beimg margined with white ; under tail-coverts 
blackish brown, broadly tipped with white; under wing-coverts blackish brown tipped with white; 
beak blackish brown, yellowish at the base; legs and feet cimnamon-brown; claws black; iris brown. 
Total length 7-5 inches, culmen 0°55, wing 4:1, tail 2-9, tarsus 1:0. 
Female. Undistinguishable in plumage from the male. 
Young Female (Sierra Nevada, August 1870). Very similar to the adult, but having rufous edgings to the 
feathers on the back, the grey underparts being duller, and washed with buff, and the white on the 
throat of the adult bird being entirely absent. 
Nestling. Upper parts very similar in character to the adult, but with the quills, especially the secondaries, 
broadly margined and tipped with rufous; the short stumpy tail dark brown, broadly tipped with dull 
rufous ; entire underparts buffy white, on the flanks washed with yellowish buff, and everwhere striped 
with dark brown, each feather having a broad central line of that colour. 
As its name implies, the present species is an inhabitant of the high mountains; but its range 
does not extend far to the north; and if we say that it is found in the mountains of Central 
and Southern Europe, we give as nearly as possible its geographical range. 
In Great Britain it is known but as a very rare straggler, having only occurred a few times in 
the southern part of England; and we cannot do better than quote our friend Professor Newton, 
who, with reference to the various instances of its occurrence which are on record, writes, in his 
edition of Yarrell, as follows :—‘ By the kindness of the late Dr. Thackeray I am enabled to give 
a figure of the Alpine Accentor from the female specimen killed in what was then the garden of 
King’s College, Cambridge, on November 22nd, 1822, and recorded in the ‘ Zoological Journal’ 
for 1824 (i. p. 134). At that time two of these birds had been occasionally seen climbing about 
the buildings, or feeding on the grass-plots, and were so tame that one of them was supposed to 
have fallen a victim to a cat: the other was shot as stated; and the specimen is preserved at 
Eton. The species, however, had been previously observed in England, though the fact was not 
recorded until April 1832 (Mag. Nat. Hist. v. p. 288); for so long ago as August 1817, Mr. 
J. H. Gurney, jun., informed the Editor, an example, still in the possession of Mr. Pamplin, was 
shot by him in the garden of Forest House, near Walthamstow, in Essex. About March 1824 
Mr. Richard Lubbock attentively observed a third at Oulton, near Lowestoft, in Suffolk, as he 
mentions in his ‘Fauna of Norfolk.’ I am indebted to the late Dean Goodenough for the 
knowledge of the occurrence of another example, which was shot in his garden at Wells, in 
Somersetshire, in 1833. On January 9th, 1844, a bird was shot by Mr. Jordan on the rocks 
near Teignmouth, which, though originally taken for a Richard's Pipit, is stated by Mr. W. S. 
Hore (Zool. p. 566) to have been an Alpine Accentor; and the same gentleman subsequently 
recorded (Zool. p. 879) a specimen obtained soon after near Torbay, which the Editor believes 
