ACCENTOR. 



3 



but irregular in their migrations. In the winter of 1820 and 1821, 

 considerable flocks of these birds visited Northumberland. During 

 their stay they fed upon the seeds of the alder ( Alnus glutinosa ) and 

 the birch. In 1824, Dr. Fleming received a male and a female, shot 

 from a flock in the first week of April. In Germany they appear about 

 October, when they do a great deal of damage to the hop plantations ; 

 and the places where they have been are easily known by the number 

 of leaves that are found lying on the ground. They visit France during 

 the vintage, and even earlier in the year, when they injure the blossoms 

 of the apple-trees : they also eat the seeds of burdock and elm. Buffon 

 says, that " immense flocks of these birds appear every three or four 

 years." They are said to fly very high, and may be heard before they 

 are seen. It is curious, that their nests are so rarely found ; nor is it 

 certain where they breed, but it is supposed to be in mountainous forests. 



Kramer remarks, that on the banks of the Danube, thousands of 

 young siskins are seen, which have not yet dropped their nestling 

 feathers. These birds surely must have been bred there, or at least not 

 far distant. Sepp has delineated the nest placed in the cleft of an 

 oak, built with dry bent mixed with leaves, and amply lined with 

 feathers ; the base being neatly rounded, and the feathers projecting 

 above the brim and concealing the eggs. The eggs, three in number, 

 are of a dull white. Selby describes the eggs as bluish-white, speckled 

 with purplish-red. Temminck says, it builds in the highest branches of 

 the pine, which accounts for its having escaped the researches of the 

 earlier naturalists. I recollect, when a boy, meeting with a nest an- 

 swering to these descriptions on the top of a Scotch-fir, about twenty 

 feet high, at Catringe Shaw, in Ayrshire, and nobody could tell the 

 species. These birds are of so mild, gentle, and docile a disposition, 

 that they become quite tame almost immediately after they are taken. 

 They may be taught many pretty tricks, such as to open the door of 

 their cage, draw up their food and water, and come to the hand to be 

 fed at the sound of a little bell or a whistle. Their food is the same as 

 that of canaries, and they are managed in the same manner.* 



ABERDEEN SANDPIPER.— A name for the Knott. 



ACCENTOR (Bechstein.) — *The Chanter, a genus characterised by 

 the beak being of middle length, strong, straight, and drawn to a very fine 

 point ; the edges of the two mandibles compressed, the upper notched 

 towards the point. Nostrils at the base, naked, pierced in a large 

 membrane. Legs strong ; three toes before and one behind ; the outer 

 one joined at its base to the middle toe ; the claw of the hinder toe 

 longest and most arched. Wings, with the first quill very short, and 



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