ACCENTOR ALPINUS, Bechstein. 

 Alpine Accentor, 



PLATE LXVIII. 



A. supra fusco-cinereo, dorso strigis fuscis vario, gula alba fusco-maculata ; tectricibus 

 alarum nigris, apicibus albis, infra cano-rufescente maculato, rectricibus laterali- 

 bus apicibus rufo albidis. 



Accentor alpinus, Bechst. Naturg. Deut. vol. Hi. p. 700. — Temm. Man. d'Ornith. ed. -2. 



vol. i. p. 248. 

 Motacilla alpina, Gmel. Syst. vol. i. p. 957- 

 Stuvnus Muritanicus, Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. i. p. 325. sp. 11. 



Sturnus collaris, Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. i. p. 323. sp. 5. — Sham's Zool. vol. x. p. 490. 

 Collared Stare, Lath. Syn. vol. Hi. p. 8. sp. 5. 

 Le Fauvette des Alpes, Buff. Ois. vol. v. p. 156. t. 10. 



W^e feel great pleasure in being able to record this species, which we have 

 selected as the appropriate type of the genus Accentor, as an occasional 

 British visitant, the specimen from which our figure is taken having been 

 killed at Cambridge, in the garden of King's College, and now in the pos- 

 session of the Rev. Dr T hackery, whose collection it enriches, and who 

 kindly accommodated us with the loan of the bird, in order to make the 

 requisite drawings. 



In form it generally resembles our indigenous species the Accentor mo- 

 dularis (Hedge Accentor), but is considerably larger, and differs in the 

 disposition and colours of its plumage. The head, neck, breast, and back, 

 are of a deep ash-grey colour, the latter with large spots of blackish-brown ; 

 the throat is white, with small angular spots of blackish-brown ; the belly 

 and flanks yellowish-white, tinged and spotted with reddish-brown ; the 

 lesser and middle wing-coverts black, the tip of the exterior web of each 

 feather white ; tail clove-brown, the exterior feathers with a large reddish- 

 white spot at the tip of the interior web ; legs and toes ochre-yellow ; the 

 base of the bill yellow, the tip black. The Alpine Accentor is an inhabi- 

 tant of the mountainous regions of Europe, and particularly affects those 

 which are abrupt and rocky. Upon Mount St Bernard it is very common, 



