ACCENTOn. 
3 
but irregular in tlieir mig-rations. 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 f Alnus g'lutinosa ) 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 nesthng 
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 ujDper 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 
B 2 
