220 SYLV1AD/E.
birds had been occasionally seen climbing the buttresses of
the buildings, or feeding on the grass-plots of the garden, and
were so tame,—a character peculiar to this species,— that
one of them, probably a male, was supposed to have fallen a
victim to a c a t: the other was sho t; on dissection it proved
to be a female, and the specimen was prepared and preserved
for Dr. Thackeray’s collection.
A second specimen has been killed in Essex; and the
following notice of the occurrence appeared in Loudon’s Magazine
of Natural History for the year 1832, page 288, in a
letter to the editor, as follows :—“ Sir, A few years since, I
shot a small bird in a garden on the borders of Epping Forest,
which I did not know, nor could any one tell me what
it was, till within a fortnight a gentleman requested me to
allow him to take it to London. He accordingly went to
Mr. Gould, Naturalist, 20, Broad-street, Golden-square,
who sends me an account of its being the Accentor alpinus,
or Alpine Warbler, the only one known to have been killed in
England, with the exception of one in Dr. Thackeray’s garden
at Cambridge. If any of your correspondents would like to
see it, they can by calling at my nursery, Wood-street,
Walthamstow.—I am, Sir, yours, &c. J ames P amplin.
Whips Cross, Walthamstow, January 27th, 1832.”
I am indebted to the Rev. Dr. Goodenough, the Dean of
Wells, for a knowledge of the occurrence of a third example
of this rare bird, which was shot in the garden of the Deanery
in Somersetshire in 1833. Dr. Goodenough most obligingly
offered to send this bird up to London for my use ; but the
loan of Dr. Thackeray’s specimen rendered a second example
unnecessary. I am not, however, the less happy to record my
obligations for the favour intended.
The Alpine Accentor is not uncommon in Germany,
France, Switzerland, Provence, and Italy, in which countries
it frequents the highest elevations of the mountain districts
during the Summer, but seeking the shelter of the valleys
to protect it from the storms of winter. It makes its nest
among stones, or in cavities of the rocks, and sometimes on
the roofs of houses, on the mountain-sides. The nest is
formed of moss and wool, lined with hair from different animals.
The eggs are four or five in number, of a fine light
blue colour, like those of our Hedge Accentor, Dunnock, or
Hedge-sparrow, as it is more commonly called, but larger,
those in my own collection measuring eleven lines in length
and eight lines in breadth. The vignette at the end of this
article represents the nest.
The food of this species consists of insects and seeds.
This bird on the Continent does not frequent bushes, nor
perch on the branches of trees, like its generic companion the
Hedge Accentor; but is almost always observed to be on
rocks or on the ground, and is remarkable for its constant
tameness, either from confidence or want of intelligence,
being apparently regardless of man. The same character
was noticed in the specimens both at Cambridge and at
Wells, the birds allowing observers to approach unusually
close to them, and when at length obliged to move, making
very short flights, and always settling on some part of the
nearest building. The resemblance of the steeple-crowned
stone edifices of Cambridge, and at the Deanery of Wells,
to the pointed and elevated rocks of their own peculiar
haunts, were supposed to have been the attraction in both
the localities referred to.
The beak is black at the point, and yellowish white at the
base ; the irides hazel: head, neck, and ear-coverts, brownish
grey; feathers of the back brown, with longitudinal central
patches of darker blackish brown ; rump greyish brown;
wmg-primaries blackish brown, the centre of each tertial stdl
darker, edged on both sides with reddish brown, and tipped
with dull white ; both the small and large wing-coverts red