SAXICOLIN^. ACCENTOR. 
131 
68. Accentor alpinus. Alpine Chanter. 
Light brownish-grey ; the back with large dusky spots, the 
wing-coverts dusky, with a terminal white spot ; throat white, 
with small triangular black spots, sides brownish-red ; bill 
dusky, lower mandible yellowish-white for three-fourths of its 
length. Female similar to the male. 
Male, 7^ • ly\, lyV? T 2 f iV* 
Of frequent occurrence in the mountainous parts of the south 
of Europe. Three individuals have been shot in England ; 
the first, in November 1822, in the garden of King^s College, 
Cambridge, and now in Dr Thackery’s collection. Its food 
consists of insects and seeds, and it breeds in rocky places, 
laying five light greenish-blue eggs. In its habits it resembles 
the next species. 
Alpine Accentor. Collared Starling. 
MotRcilla alpina, Gmel. Syst. Nat. i. 806. — Accentor alpi- 
nus, Temm. Man. d’Ornith, i. 248. — Accentor alpinus, Alpine 
Chanter, MacGillivray, Brit. Birds, ii. 258. 
69. Accentor modularis. Hedge Chanter. 
Upper part of the head and neck grey, streaked with brown ; 
back reddish-brown, with dark brown spots ; fore neck and 
breast dull ash-grey, sides streaked with brown ; upper man- 
dible brownish-black, lower flesh-coloured, with the tip 
dusky ; feet brownish-yellow, toes darker, claws wood- brown. 
Female similar, but with the grey of the neck and breast duller 
and tinged with brown, and the rump more olivaceous. Young 
with the upper parts confusedly mottled with dusky and light 
brownish-red, the lower parts light yellowish-grey, streaked 
with dusky. 
Male, 65 ^, 8 ^, 2^^^? y^. Female, 6 , 8 ^. 
This plainly coloured, modest, quiet, and familiar bird is 
generally distributed in Britain and Ireland, frequenting gar- 
dens, hedges, and thickets. The male sings occasionally, in 
fine weather, even in winter ; but in tlie latter half of spring 
especially, may be heard chanting its sliort, clear, pleasantly 
modulated, but not remarkably mellow song. At all seasons, 
it has a peculiar shake of the wings, which, during the breed- 
ing period, increases to a kind of flutter. It feeds on small 
seeds of various kinds, as well as insects, pupse, and larvee, 
using a great quantity of minute fragments of quartz and other 
hard minerals. The nest, which is formed from the middle of 
March to the beginning of May, is bulky, lined with wool and 
